Background
Al Hilali was born in Czechoslovakia and has lived in Baghdad.
Al Hilali was born in Czechoslovakia and has lived in Baghdad.
She moved to southern California in 1961. She trained as an artist in Europe, and extensively at the University of California Los Angeles. Her early works in the 1960s consisted of flat weavings and knotted hangings.
These were followed by large, room-filling installations and a series of giant brown-paper "Tongues" installed on Venice beach. Al Hilali has described her work as "foot tracks of prolonged attention and energy," as each requires many hours of intensive handiwork. Her work is in the collections of various museums, including the Renwick Gallery, Museum of Art and Design, and Utah Museum of Fine Arts.
Her papers are at the Archives of American Art. 1971-72 Deliberate Entanglements: An Exhibition of Fabric Forms, UCLA Art Galleries
1985 Neda Alhilali: selected works, 1968-1985, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park
1985, Fiberworks: an invitational exhibit of contemporary fiberworks, University of Texas at El Paso Department of Art
1985 Artists Select Artists, Modern Master Tapestries. 1986 Legends in fiber, Octagon Center for the Arts, Ames, Iowa
1988 Current works in fiber, Georgia State University Art Gallery.