Etel Adnan (Arabic: إيتيل عدنان; 24 February 1925 – 14 November 2021) was a Lebanese-American poet, essayist, and visual artist.

In 2003, Adnan was named "arguably the most celebrated and accomplished Arab American author writing today" by the academic journal MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States.

[1] In addition to her literary output, Adnan made visual works in a variety of media, such as oil paintings, films and tapestries, which have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the world.

Both artists were interested in making visual art in small formats, and utilising a range of media and expressive forms.

"[20] In 2012, a series of the artist's brightly colored abstract paintings were exhibited as a part of documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany.

[23] Inspired by Japanese leporellos, Adnan also painted landscapes on foldable screens that can be "extended in space like free-standing drawings".

The catalog was designed by artist Ala Younis in Arabic and English, and included text contributions by Simone Fattal, Daniel Birnbaum, Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, as well as six interviews with Hans-Ulrich Obrist.

[24] In 2015, Adnan's paintings and tapestries were featured in Sharjah Biennial 12: The past, the present, the possible alongside works by Chung Chang Sup, Fahrelnissa Zeid, Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara, and Saloua Raouda Choucair as well as contemporary artists such as Julie Mehretu, Haegue Yang, Taro Shinoda, Jac Leirner, and Adrian Villar Rojas, among others.

In 2017, Adnan's work was included in Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction, a group exhibition organized by MoMA, which brought together prominent artists including Ruth Asawa, Gertrudes Altschul, Anni Albers, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Lygia Clark, and Lygia Pape, among others.

[32]In 2023 her work was included in the exhibition Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.