Issue 13-2

In this special issue we focus on the incredible Middle Eastern artists living and working in the United States. As President Trump has just signed his second executive order designed to ban immigrants from several majority Muslim countries, Canvas Editor-in-Chief Ali Y. Khadra travelled extensively to meet some of the best-known artists from our region in the US and find out their reactions to what is happening, both as artists and Middle Easterners. Fit to burst with the need to express their outrage over Trump, their compelling responses were such that we took the unprecedented decision of running ten covers for this issue, one for each artist who took part. We also visit Mohammed Afkhami and Dr Fereshteh Daftari at the Aga Khan Museum and discuss the role of art in troubled times. Back in the Gulf, Picasso and Giacometti are currently in Doha, the groundbreaking exhibition Bayn: the In-Between is showing in Abu Dhabi and Art Dubai and the Sharjah Biennial are about to open.