JOE NAMY
b. 1978, United StatesJoe Namy is a Lebanese American artist, composer, and educator whose work spans installation, performance, video, and sound. He is best known for projects that explore how listening is shaped by architecture, sound systems, and other social infrastructures, often connecting sonic experience to migration, memory, conflict, and community. His work has been presented internationally at institutions and platforms including Darat al Funun, KADIST, Somerset House, FRONT International, the Biennale of Sydney, and Ibraaz, where his current exhibition Cosmic Breath considers the spiritual and spatial dimensions of sound.
Career and Practice
Born in 1978, Namy came to visual art through music, with rhythm and percussion remaining central to the way he thinks about sound as both material and structure. He completed an MFA at New York University and participated in the inaugural Home Workspace Program at Ashkal Alwan in Beirut, helping shape a research-led and collaborative practice. Moving between the United States, Beirut, and London has also informed his attention to diaspora, translation, and the movement of music across places and histories.
Working across installation, performance, and moving image, Namy often develops projects through long-term research into specific archives, musical traditions, or sites. A recurring strand of his work examines the histories and politics of sound in the Middle East and North Africa, including opera houses, devotional sound, and the circulation of songs and instruments through colonial, national, and popular contexts. He has also engaged the archive of Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh, extending those experimental sonic histories into contemporary art.
Works and Themes
Namy’s work treats sound not as a neutral medium but as a force that shapes space, bodies, and social relations. Many projects draw on the physical and symbolic charge of bass, resonance, and amplification, using speakers, horns, and other architectural elements to make audible the infrastructures through which power and identity are organised. Collaboration is often central to this process, with musicians, performers, and communities contributing to works that respond closely to place while opening broader questions around collectivity and listening.
These concerns come into focus in Cosmic Breath, Namy’s current exhibition at Ibraaz in London. Presented in the institution’s Musalla space, the installation is composed from recordings of the adhan, or Islamic call to prayer, gathered from different locations and moments in time. Broadcast through horn speakers associated with mosque minarets, the work creates a layered sonic environment that reflects on spirituality, orientation, and shared experience across distance. Reimagined from a commission first developed for the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah in 2023, it shows how Namy uses sound to connect intimate acts of listening with broader histories of place and belonging.
Exhibitions and Recognition
Namy has exhibited widely in solo and group contexts, with presentations at Darat al Funun, KADIST, Somerset House, the White House in Dagenham, the Borås Art Biennial, FRONT International, and the Biennale of Sydney. Alongside exhibitions, he has participated in conversations, performances, and public programmes that reflect the discursive dimension of his practice and its engagement with sound, space, and social life.
Joe Namy FAQs
What is Joe Namy best known for?
Joe Namy is best known for sound-based installations and performances that explore how listening is shaped by architecture, sound systems, and public space. His work often links sonic experience to migration, memory, spirituality, and power.
What themes does Joe Namy explore?
His work explores sound as a carrier of identity, community, and historical memory. Recurring themes include diaspora, militarisation, masculinity, spirituality, and the infrastructures that organise how sound is heard.
What is ‘Cosmic Breath’ at Ibraaz?
Cosmic Breath is a sound installation by Joe Namy composed from recordings of the adhan from different places and periods. Presented in Ibraaz’s Musalla space, it uses layered calls to prayer and horn speakers to reflect on sacred sound, space, and collective listening.
Where can I see Joe Namy’s work?
Joe Namy’s work has been shown internationally at institutions and platforms including Darat al Funun, KADIST, Somerset House, FRONT International, the Biennale of Sydney, and Ibraaz. Recent and current presentations are typically announced by the hosting institution or exhibition platform.
Ocula | 2026
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