Yazan Khalili is a visual artist, architect, and cultural activist. Khalili’s photography is detailed, reflective, and full of intent. Using photography and the written word, Khalili unpacks historically constructed landscapes. Borrowing from cinematic language, images become frames where the spectator embodies the progression of time and narratives. He weaves together parallel stories over the years, forming both questions and paradoxes concerning scenery and the act of gazing, all of which are refracted through the prism of intimate politics and alienating poetics. In particular, he focuses on the effect of geographical distance on our rendering of territory, and its ability to heighten or arrest our political and sentimental attachments.

His works have been exhibited in several major exhibitions, including documenta fifteen, 2022; KW, Berlin, 2020; MoCA Toronto, 2020; New Photography, MoMA, 2018; Jerusalem Lives, Palestinian Museum, 2017; Post-Peace, Kunstverein Stuttgart, 2017; Shanghai Biennial 2016; Sharjah Biennial 2013; and others. In 2020, he co-founded Radio Alhara, and in 2019 he co-founded The Question of Funding collective. 

He received the Extract V young artist prize in 2015, and was the artistic director of Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre in 2015–2019. Khalili was the co-chair of photography at the MFA program at Bard College, New York, until 2022, and the guest artist-in-residence at Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, through 2022.