Aneesa Shami Zizzo [Photo by Marinna Jamadi]
“I think for the particular work on display, it’s very abstract. It’s not imagery, it’s not depicting specific things, but it’s very inspired by Arabic calligraphy, very inspired by architecture and places that I’ve seen in person as well as in photos,” said Zizzo.
The month-long exhibition at the Hastings Branch Library, located at 3325 E. Orange Grove Blvd., is a key component of Pasadena’s official Arab American Heritage Month programming. This year’s celebrations align with the national theme “Arab American Heritage: Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future.”
Zizzo’s work reflects her identity as a second-generation Arab-American with a Palestinian-Lebanese father and American mother. Her abstract pieces intertwine personal history, world mythologies, and the sublime to explore broader narratives of human experience and cultural memory. She primarily uses upcycled and discarded materials in her work, particularly fabric samples from design firms in Los Angeles.
“Those works were made a couple of years after I visited Lebanon and visited my extended family for the first time,” Zizzo explained. “One thing that really struck me was this presence of the Jinn in the Quran and pre-Islamic folklore.”
Her artistic journey took a significant turn when she was awarded an artist residency at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan in May 2024. The experience connected her with others sharing similar backgrounds of displacement and immigration.
“I was able to connect with a lot of people who had similar stories to mine where their parents were displaced or immigrated to the Midwest,” said Zizzo. “And I was able to just experience this uniqueness of Dearborn where everyone is pretty much of Arab American descent or heritage, and celebrating that and being open with that and not necessarily hiding it, I felt like I had to do when I was growing up.”
Growing up in suburban Kansas in a bicultural household during the post-9/11 era created a complex relationship with her Arab heritage, which she has only recently begun to fully explore in her work. In 2017, Zizzo visited Lebanon for the first time, a journey that profoundly influenced her artistic direction.
Through her exhibition, Zizzo aims to challenge negative media stereotypes of Arab culture by highlighting its beauty and artistic traditions.
“I feel like a lot of the depiction of the Middle East and Arabs in general in the media are kind of violent or skewed toward aggressive or that kind of a thing,” she said. “So I just want to show there are beautiful things about the culture too, which we should recognize and celebrate.”
The exhibition is part of a broader series of events in Pasadena marking Arab American Heritage Month, including a Celebration of Arabic Music at Allendale Branch on April 19 and La Pintoresca Branch on April 26, and an exhibition by Kurdish-Iranian artist Kourosh Beigpour at La Pintoresca Branch Library.
Zizzo, who holds Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in both Fiber and Art History from the Kansas City Art Institute, also co-owns Studio 203 in Los Angeles with her husband, promoting fiber art and craft-based work. In January 2025, she launched “The Scheherazade Project,” creating abstract expressionist collages from National Geographic periodicals featuring Southwest Asian and North African culture-related articles to challenge orientalism in Western media.
