Education
2025-2027 – Master in Fine Arts – Design Candidate, Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of Arts, New Brunswick, NJ
2018 – Bachelor in Fine Arts, Austin Peay State University (APSU), Clarksville, TN
Professional Work/Commissions
2025 – Publicity co-adjunct, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2024-25 – Editor for Renascence Books, Nashville, TN
Residency
2024 – Bethany Arts Community, Ossining, NY
Selected Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2025 – Michael Hambouz & Ali El-Chaer, Gazala Projects, Dayton, OH
Book Cover, Lambda Literary, New York, NY
2024 – Revisiting Love Letters: Interview with Ali El-Chaer, Asian American Writer’s Workshop, New York, NY
2023 – Queers, Wake Up! We are all Gaza, Protect Trans Health TN (Illustration)
Love Letters folio, Asian American Writers Workshop, Virtual (Illustration)
Rabbit in Cave (أرنب في الةفارة ), FEMME, Nashville, TN
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 – Contributor to Instigator’s Handbook, curated by Alice Yard, Kochi Biennale, Kerala, India
Cut Out the Tongue, Random Sample, Nashville, TN
2024 – Queering Democracy, juried exhibition, Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo), Rochester, NY
Banned Books, Southern Festival of Books, Nashville, TN
Banned Books, Artville, Nashville, TN
Watermelon Seeds, Begonia Laboratory, Engine for Arts, Democracy, and Justice (EADJ), Nashville, TN
2023 – Moving, Transfer, Pique Gallery, Covington, KY
We Are Sorry to Inform You, The Wrong Biennale, Virtual
Moving, Transfer, Art Academy of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
In Our Place, Midwest Nice, Aberdeen, SD
2022 – We Are Sorry to Inform You That, Adele Jarrar + MNFA, Timisoara, Romania
We Are Sorry to Inform You That, Adele Jarrar + MNFA, Amman, Jordan
Queer Identity, The Dirty Spread Collective, Bristol, UK
2021 – Canvas Project, TEBBS Contemporary Art Gallery, England, UK
The Divine: Beyond the Bounds of Queerness, Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery, Seattle, WA
Grants/Fellowships/Juror
2025 – Juror, Creative West Artist Fund, Creative West, Denver, CO
Juror, National Arts Futures Fellowship, South Arts, Atlanta, GA
2024 – 25 – National Leaders of Color Fellowship 2024-25, selected by South Arts, “a nonprofit regional arts organization empowering artists,” Atlanta, GA. Curated by Creative West, Denver Colorado
Nominated and awarded for Press On Southern Movement Media Fund
Microgrant, The Salt Weekly, Nashville, TN
Curatorial Projects
2024 – Heaven Replied, Publication Editor, Renascence Books, Nashville, TN
2023- Imagining Sherezade, performed by Sangeetha Ekambaram, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, Nashville, TN
Damask Rose, co-curated by Brooke Hoffert, Random Sample, Nashville, TN
Poppy, co-curated by Brooke Hoffert, FEMME, Nashville, TN
Selected Lectures
2025 – Have You Seen This Bird?, Rutger’s Climate Symposium, New Brunswick, NJ
2024 – Political Poster History, BAC, Ossining, NY
Artist Lecture, Watermelon Seeds, EADJ, Nashville, TN
2023 – Who is Ali El-Chaer, WXNA (101.5 FM), Nashville, TN
Mental Health in Palestine, Psycho Babble, Nashville, TN, Radio (WXNA, 101.5 FM)
Selected Writings
2025 – When Opportunists are King, Safe Word, online
2024 – Intro to Heaven Replied, Renascence Books, Nashville, TN
2023 – Olives Are Beautiful by Ali El-Chaer, CedarHill Homestead, Springfield, TN
2021 – Seasons + Us by Ali El-Chaer, 10th Anniversary Anthology, Poetry in the Brew, Nashville, TN
Selected Press + Publications
2025 – Michael Hambouz and Ali El-Chaer Strike a Balance in Gazala Projects Exhibition, Matter News, Dayton, OH
Random Sample Gazette, Random Sample, Nashville, TN
2024 – A Space for Collective Grieving and Solidarity in Nashville, Nashville Banner, Nashville, TN
Begonia Labs Is a Safe Space for ‘Watermelon Seeds’, Nashville Scene, Nashville, TN
2023 – International Waters, Moyé Magazine, South Africa, Johannesburg
2022 – Issue No. 9, The Hen Collective, Edinburgh, UK
طز, Issue 48, Salt Hill Journal, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Devil Stuff, The Salt Weekly, Nashville, TN
8th edition, Angel Rust Magazine, Virginia, USA
Collections
2025 – St. George donated by Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN
2022 – Who Am I? purchased by Femme, Glasgow, Scotland
Ali El-Chaer علي الشاعر 