Migration in Dialogue – Rubeen Salem
Rubeen Salem, Doin’ Our Best (2024). Acrylic and ink on canvas, 16 × 20 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Rubeen Salem is a master at making the mundane beautiful. Whether it’s an abandoned piece of wood on the side of the road or a cracked teapot, his innate creativity allows him to reclaim objects into something of aesthetic significance. The Palestinian American visual artist uses airbrush, paint, and poetry to create dynamic compositions that wrestle with themes of identity. Salem’s work pushes society to move past darkness and search for a shared beauty within themselves.
Anna Carlson: Where were you born?
Rubeen Salem: I was born in San Francisco, California, and lived in Cleveland, Ohio, for a few years. Then, I moved to Palestine, where I lived from nine to eleven years old. I then lived in Brooklyn for three years and moved back to San Francisco for three years at the beginning of high school. After that, I went to Cleveland again to finish high school. I went to college there, and I moved to New York about a year and a half ago to pursue art.
Rubeen Salem paints in his art studio on the Lower East Side. Courtesy of the artist.
AC: What was embarking on a career in art like for you?
RB: It was insane, for sure. It wasn’t something I embarked on completely at first, at least not to the degree I’ve embarked on here. In Cleveland, I tried my best to do it.
AC: How has the itinerant nature of your journey so far impacted your art?
RB: Having a diverse collection of cultures—from the Middle East to the American Midwest to the East Coast to the West Coast—has contributed a lot to my art. From the different lingo to the personalities and styles, I think the combination of these influences makes my art what it is today.
AC: Who are some other Arab or Palestinian artists you are fond of?
RB: I am familiar with many Palestinian musicians. Elyanna is really cool; what she does is remarkable. I admire Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese poet who wrote the book, The Prophet. Gibran is an Arab artist sharing his art and having it be well received… His work is very on-brand of mine, and it’s culturally powerful.
Courtesy of Rubeen Salem.
AC: Have you met a community of other Palestinian artists or creatives in New York?
RB: I’ve definitely met a community that is supportive of Palestine. They do everything they can to give exposure to the cause. I am not much of a political person. I’m working on a painting right now called We’re All In This, which is about how we are all in this mess together. None of us want to kill or be killed. We want to work toward a solution, but at the end of the day, we are still all here together because there’s more that connects us than divides us.
AC: Do you feel pressure to represent Palestine?
RB: The best thing I can do for Palestine is just be me and do as well as I can in my art. I want to show people that we are talented in this desert. We have a softer touch; we are human. I don’t want my existence as a Palestinian person to be solely on the fact that we rebel against an occupational state—more on the fact that I am a human.
Rubeen Salem, Mindful (2024). Acrylic and ink on wood, 31 x 40 in. Courtesy of the artist.
AC: Who or what are some of your other thematic influences?
RB: A big inspiration for me is Lana Del Rey. I love how raw and vulnerable she gets expressing emotions. For the time, what she brought to the table was very brave—a new way of loving. I like to evoke emotions and intend to help others feel like they can express those feelings. There’s no shame in going insane, falling in love, or going crazy for something and someone. My art is full of passion for the abundance of things I love in my life.
AC: Tell me about the relationships you depict in your paintings. Are they personal, what you observe, or the kind of relationships you dream about?
RB: A mixture of all of these. I want to capture and solidify beautiful moments. A lot of the ideas are manifestations or prayers of something I’d like to welcome into my life, or even expressing gratitude about the beautiful things and how grateful I am to be me, just as everyone should be grateful to be themselves. That’s what I hope to spur in people as well—to feel their humanness.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
For more information on Palestinian relief fundraisers, please see:
