In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Dina AZ. Salem!

About Dina AZ. Salem: Washington, DC–based abstract artist born in Alexandria, Egypt, working across painting and sculpture to create materially driven works that explore healing, transformation, memory, and resilience. Through layered surfaces, texture, and unconventional materials, her practice investigates how personal experiences can be translated into visual language. She signs her work with the initials of her late father, honoring the person who first encouraged her artistic journey.

In our conversation, Salem talks through growing up as a hyperactive child in Alexandria, Egypt, and how her mother discovered that painting calmed her down—leading to a lifelong artistic practice that began at four or five years old. She shares how her father, Ahmed Zaki, a CFO who never used a calculator in his life, would sit next to her and watch her paint, eventually buying her early works for small amounts to encourage her. Salem recalls visiting her father's office at nine years old and finding all her blue paintings hanging on his walls, and how his passing when she was twelve stopped her artistic journey for years.

She connects her path from applying to shoe design school in Italy to eventually attending Virginia Tech and landing in DC about four years ago, reflecting on how the journey "chose her." We get into her philosophy that materials carry memory—sourcing everything from sand to plaster to abandoned items found walking around DC and at Home Depot, her "happy place." As she puts it, she's interested in "how we become someone new without losing who we were." Salem discusses how living in two places has made her understand that "identity is never fixed, it's always evolving," and how she wouldn't create the same style of work if she had stayed in Egypt.

Be sure to follow Dina AZ. Salem on Instagram at @dinaazsalem to keep up with her work and future projects.

Photo courtesy of subject.

The Truth In This Art is supported by William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, the Maryland State Arts Council's Creativity Grant and Mayor's Individual Artist Award - Creative Baltimore Fund (Baltimore). 

Host: Rob Lee
Music: Original music by Daniel Alexis Music with additional music from Chipzard and TeTresSeis.
Production: