Wafaa Bilal
About:
Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi-born artist internationally recognized for his online performative and interactive works that provoke dialogue about international and interpersonal politics. His practice examines the tension between the cultural spaces he inhabits — physically located in the relative comfort of the United States while his consciousness remains tied to the conflict zone of Iraq.
In his landmark 2007 installation Domestic Tension, Bilal spent a month in FlatFile Galleries while online participants controlled a remote-access paintball gun aimed at him. The Chicago Tribune described the work as “one of the sharpest works of political art to be seen in a long time,” naming him 2008 Artist of the Year. That same year, City Lights published Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun, which reflects on Bilal’s life and the making of Domestic Tension.
Using his own body as a primary medium, Bilal continued to confront audiences’ comfort zones through projects such as 3rdi and …and Counting. His work Canto III was included in the Iraqi Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale. His ongoing project 168:01 raises awareness of cultural destruction while fostering collective healing through education and audience participation.
In 2025, Bilal presented Indulge Me at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), a major exhibition further expanding his exploration of power, spectatorship, and the politics of participation. That same year, he was named Artist of the Year 2025 by Arts News.
Bilal’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; and MATHAF: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, among others. He holds a BFA from the University of New Mexico, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and received an honorary PhD from DePauw University. He is currently Arts Professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi-born artist internationally recognized for his online performative and interactive works that provoke dialogue about international and interpersonal politics. His practice examines the tension between the cultural spaces he inhabits — physically located in the relative comfort of the United States while his consciousness remains tied to the conflict zone of Iraq.
In his landmark 2007 installation Domestic Tension, Bilal spent a month in FlatFile Galleries while online participants controlled a remote-access paintball gun aimed at him. The Chicago Tribune described the work as “one of the sharpest works of political art to be seen in a long time,” naming him 2008 Artist of the Year. That same year, City Lights published Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun, which reflects on Bilal’s life and the making of Domestic Tension.
Using his own body as a primary medium, Bilal continued to confront audiences’ comfort zones through projects such as 3rdi and …and Counting. His work Canto III was included in the Iraqi Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale. His ongoing project 168:01 raises awareness of cultural destruction while fostering collective healing through education and audience participation.
In 2025, Bilal presented Indulge Me at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), a major exhibition further expanding his exploration of power, spectatorship, and the politics of participation. That same year, he was named Artist of the Year 2025 by Arts News.
Bilal’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; and MATHAF: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, among others. He holds a BFA from the University of New Mexico, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and received an honorary PhD from DePauw University. He is currently Arts Professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.