© all images copyright by Chris Gazaleh
ABOUT CHRIS GAZALEH
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Chris Gazaleh is a street muralist, graffiti artist, designer, musician, coordinator, and advocate committed to fostering a message of humanity, compassion, and integrity with the Palestinian people through his art which can be found all over San Francisco and the Bay Area. Gazaleh initially began his career doodling comic books as a kid and evolved into tagging graffiti throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s until he evolved into developing his personal style with glyphs and letters before moving on to larger murals and creations on canvas, with ink, in digital format, then clothing and product designs.
Chris was born in San Francisco and grew up between the Bay and Detroit, MI. Gazaleh’s father owned a pizzeria in East Deerborn, MI and his mother worked as a Pharmacy Tech in Oakland. He learned Arabic in Detroit before moving back to SF at 21. From there he attended San Francisco State where as a member of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) he initially participated in painting the Edward Said mural. Afterward, he started painting community murals around San Francisco, before finally being given a wall of his own in Clarion Alley by the late legendary SF muralist CUBA (who was affiliated with, among many other movements, the Mission school). Gazaleh is well-known for his singular colors, fulsome facial elements, and figurative displays. He’s now well-known as a muralist in San Francisco and the Bay Area where his work can be seen at several restaurants both in the city and the East Bay. Many of his pieces are also available for sale online.
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© 2022 by Nicolina Gallo
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Both his paternal and maternal grandparents were from Ramallah and came to the US after being forced out in May of 1948. His paternal grandfather was very close to being executed before being aided by a Palestinian Jewish (Samaritan) friend at the last minute.
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Gazaleh’s art is his medium to communicate love and understanding and oppose the negative stereotypes of Arabs, Palestinians, and Muslims across the globe. He believes all Palestinians are one family with histories that traverse and interconnect but he welcomes the idea that every identity has a labyrinth of intricate experiences and passing judgement on others is something he tries hard not to do.
His brother Tarik is an artist and his cousin was the original artist for the cartoon Ren & Stimpy. In 2018, he completed his largest project to date: a 3000 square foot mural, that encompassed an entire building located at the CA 101 onramp at Market and Octavia. No tools besides simple measurements were involved and even then, only a short draft was taken. Gazaleh built the project as he would a mosaic, looking at it as something chaotic and organic all at once. He felt the mural should be a symbol of unity for humanity which is something shared by everyone and through art humanity can communicate in a way that no other medium is able.
