The Lost Paintings: A Prelude to Return

The MAC in Belfast presents The Lost Paintings: A Prelude to Return, a landmark exhibition featuring the work of 53 artists from Palestine and its diaspora.

Curated by Helsinki-based, Finnish-Israeli artist Haidi Motola, Palestinian Rula Khoury and Lebanese-American curator Joëlle Tomb, the exhibition travels across time and borders to reimagine the missing works of Maroun Tomb, a Palestinian-Lebanese artist, whose 1947 exhibition in Haifa was lost amid the mass displacement and dispossession of the Palestinians during the Nakba. The works resurrect a moment that was nearly erased until it was discovered in archival documents.

Drawing from the minimal information of Tomb's last exhibition in Palestine before his forced exile, the contemporary artists' responses navigate across painting, photography, multimedia, sculpture and video to move between what was and what could be. They do not reconstruct the past, but reclaim it-through fragments, gestures, and stories passed across generations. Bringing together today's rising artists alongside the trailblazers of Palestinian modern art, this exhibition is a collective act of resistance paired with interrogation of colonial violence and its consequences on multiple generations.

Exhibiting Artists
Noor Abed · Abed Abdi · Hala Abo Freh · Ghassan Yousef Abulaban · Tala Abunuwar · Ruba Al-Faraouna · Dalia Ali · Faten Abu Ali · Ola Alkrenawi · Sama Alshaibi · Aysha E Arar · Doaa Badran · Nasrin Abu Baker · Joanna Barakat · Jacqueline Béjani · Doris Bittar · Benji Boyadgian · Muhammad Nour ElKhairy · Faissal El-Malak · Ashraf Fawakhry · Michael Halak · Aya Abu Hawash · Raed Issa · Iman Jabrah ·
Khaled Jarrar · Juhaina Habibi Kandalaft · Mado Kelleyan ·
Dina Nazmi Khorchid · Bayan Kiwan · Noel Maghathe ·
Yara Kassem Mahajena · Maria Saleh Mahameed · Souad Naser Makhoul · Sliman Mansour · Sara Mraish · Zohdy Qadry · Antoine Elias Raffoul · Ridikkuluz · Fatima Abu Roomi · Steve Sabella · Razan AlSalah ·
Nora Sayyad · Farid Abu Shakra · Samah Shihadi · Nardeen Srouji · Dalleh Tarabey · Fouad Tomb · Lorena Tomb · Sandra Tomb ·
Mary Tuma · Sharif Waked · Ronen Zien · Manar Zuabi

The exhibition will also travel to London and Bristol later in 2026, more information to follow.

The Lost Paintings: A Prelude to Return is supported by Kone Foundation, Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland, Boston Palestine Film Festival, Fouad and May Tomb Foundation for the Arts, and Mass Cultural Council.