Photo courtesy of Huda Totonji.

Category: Visuals
Country: Saudi Arabia

About

Huda is an artist who was born and raised in Saudi Arabia but moved to the United States as an adult.  By establishing herself in both Eastern and Western environments, Huda has developed a unique style in her art that incorporates traits from both of these cultures.  Huda plays with both image and text and thus cannot be categorized into a single category. She is an Arab artist and a master calligrapher. Certified in Teaching Arabic Calligraphy (Ijazat Alkhat Alarabi), she obtained her BA in Studio Art and MFA in Art and Visual Technology.

Huda is also a lecturer at Dar Al Hekma College in Jeddah and is part of the faculty at the Art Institute of Washington.  Aside from lecturing, Huda also is a visiting speaker and has been to several universities including Portland State University, Oregon State University, George Washington University, University of Pennsylvania, and many more.

Huda’s work has moved formally from painting towards video, performance and text in response to investigating issues about femininity and representation. Working with the female gaze, her MFA thesis show from George Mason University presented these challenges through the use of Performance Art, Video Installation, Multi-Media, Drawing, Painting, and Photography. Her PhD dissertation explored the integration of text and image researching Islamic calligraphy, female subjectivity, and art and science.

Huda’s artwork ranges from painting, to performing, to handling videos.  She has explored many areas of art and sees her future career to be something that helps to “establish robust educational channels between international universities and other universities in Saudi Arabia, leading the Saudi female educators and artists into an outstanding productive and creative educational environment.”