As an abstract painter and theorist, Samia Halaby has honed a geometric visual language rooted in both Arab artistic traditions and modern abstraction. Her work from the early 1960s examines how colour and shape combine to suggest space, movement and visual rhythm, positioning abstraction as a way of engaging with structure and perception. Beer Knife (1964) comprises irregular colour fields arranged in a loose geometric structure. The top section of the composition is dominated by dark, near-black hues, while the lower part is split into orange and blue rectangles of slightly different sizes. These sections are traversed by a turquoise band, which stretches across the surface of the painting like a beam of light. The irregular edges and shifting forms create a sense of movement and spatial tension—interlocking planes sliding past one another. 

^{*Currently exhibited at Aranya Art Center}