08.10.1982–?
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Artists
Biographies, facts and images with open sources and verified rights.
Found: 1775
1968–06.04.2024
Dinh Q. Lê
Dinh Q. Lê (1968–2024) fled Vietnam by boat at the age of ten, grew up in Los Angeles, and from the 1990s gradually returned to Vietnam, eventually settling in Ho Chi Minh City. He cut photographs into strips and wove them into large pictures modelled on grass mats, made video installations about war and memory, and in 2007 helped found the art space Sàn Art.1997–present
Shamma Al Bastaki
Shamma Al Bastaki, from Dubai, has written poems since the age of seven, and in 2018 she completed the three-volume “House to House” (Bait La Bait), based on oral histories from the Dubai Creek communities. A graduate of New York University Abu Dhabi and Harvard, she also works as a visual artist: she sews dolls, photographs them and makes sculpture and photography installations.1981–present
Noor Al Suwaidi
Noor Al Suwaidi (born 1981) grew up in Abu Dhabi, studied studio art, and then became the first student from the Middle East on the curating master's course at Kingston University. She works in paint and collage and curates exhibitions of Emirati artists. Her first solo exhibition took place in London in 2011; her works are held in the Barjeel Art Foundation collection.1983–present
Monira Al Qadiri
Monira Al Qadiri was born in Dakar, grew up in Kuwait and left for Japan, where she spent ten years in Tokyo. In her videos and sculptures oil and pearls share the same iridescent sheen, and in her performances she dresses as a man. Her work has been shown at Haus der Kunst in Munich, the Berlinische Galerie and the Palais de Tokyo, and is held by the Van Abbemuseum and the Jameel Arts Centre.1909–1994
Loukia Nicolaidou
Loukia Nicolaidou of Limassol went to study in Paris in 1929, an unusual step for a Cypriot young woman of that time. Back home, she showed nudes in Nicosia and Limassol, and women unlike the usual “wives and mothers”, and the public received them coolly. After her marriage in 1939 she stopped exhibiting, and she was not rediscovered until 1992.24.02.1910–18.11.1993
Telemachos Kanthos
Telemachos Kanthos (1910–1993) grew up in the mountain village of Alona and became one of the first Cypriot artists to train in Athens; in Cyprus he is regarded as the first printmaker. He taught drawing at the Pancyprian Gymnasium in Nicosia and designed productions for local theatres. After 1974 he cut the woodcut series “Hard Times”, honoured at the Alexandria Biennale in 1984.1967–present
Serena de la Hey
Serena de la Hey was born in Kenya, spent her early childhood on farms in Australia, and has lived and worked in Somerset since the early 1990s. She makes wicker figures of people and animals from local willow. Her best-known work, “Willow Man”, about twelve metres high beside the M5 motorway near Bridgwater, was burnt in 2001 and rebuilt.19.10.1939–?
David Gian Maillu
David Maillu (born 1939) founded his own publishing house, Comb Books, in Nairobi in 1972 and issued through it the first book of poetry ever published in Kikamba. He then switched to English and over five decades published more than sixty books: poems, novels, children’s books. Some of his early works were banned in Tanzania, and “Broken Drum” (1991) won the Jomo Kenyatta Prize.19.06.1928–09.02.2021
Rosemary Karuga
Rosemary Karuga (1928–2021) entered the Margaret Trowell School at Makerere University in Kampala at twenty-one and became the first woman to graduate from the university. She began working professionally only in retirement, in the late 1980s, making collages from soap wrappers, newspapers and glossy magazines. Her work was shown in Paris, London and at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.1854–1932
Lazzaro Pisani
Lazzaro Pisani (1854–1932) studied in Rome at the Accademia di San Luca but returned to Malta in 1874. In 1885 his painting “Death of Abel” won him a silver medal at the Colonial Exhibition in London. He decorated Maltese churches: the ceiling of the basilica in Nadur is made up of more than 150 canvases. His last frescoes, in Siġġiewi and Mġarr, were left unfinished.01.12.1967–22.05.2011
Suzanne Mizzi
Suzanne Mizzi was born in Malta, grew up in London and at seventeen made her debut as a Page 3 girl in The Sun. In the late 1980s she moved to the catwalk and worked with Vivienne Westwood, then sang in the group Wildflowers. In the 2000s she turned to interiors and abstract painting; her exhibition “Timeless” was held at the Artbank Gallery in London.23.08.1943–?
Syed Thajudeen
Syed Thajudeen was born in 1943 in the village of Alagankulam in southern India and lived in Malaysia from 1954, where he became known. He paints mainly in oil: the “Ramayana” triptych (1972–1973) and the Kebaya and Malacca Sultanate series. His works are held by the National Art Gallery of Malaysia and the Singapore Art Museum.29.12.1937–?
Mohd Khalil Yaakob
Mohd Khalil bin Yaakob was born in Kuantan in 1937 and began as a diplomat, serving in Italy, Morocco, Singapore and Indonesia. He then entered politics: for thirteen years he headed the government of the state of Pahang, and later he was Malaysia’s Minister of Information. From 2004 to 2020 he was head of state of Malacca, and during his term the city of Malacca was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.1977–present
Fahmi Reza
Fahmi Reza, a Malaysian graphic designer and documentary filmmaker, posted a portrait of Prime Minister Najib Razak in clown make-up in January 2016, captioned “in a country full of corruption, we are all instigators”. The image spread across the country, and its author was taken to court. Earlier he had made the film “Ten Years Before Independence”, which won an award at the Freedom Film Fest.1954–2019
Munira Mosli
Munira Mosli (1954–2019) was born in Mecca, studied in Cairo and the United States, and then worked as a designer at Aramco. She held her first exhibition at fourteen, and her mature style is generally thought to have emerged after the Beirut exhibition “Al-Wasiti and I” (1997). In her work she combined painting with three-dimensional materials: copper, palm fibre, papyrus, oysters and collage.20.02.1929–03.02.2023
Bine Rogelj
Albin “Bine” Rogelj of Ljubljana was a ski jumper for Yugoslavia and finished 23rd on the normal hill at the 1956 Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo. He studied drawing alongside his sporting career, and from 1953 to 1990 he worked for the satirical weekly Pavliha. He drew his cartoons straight in ink, without a pencil sketch.10.06.1973–?
Polona Lovšin
Polona Lovšin graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana and illustrates children’s books and textbooks. She began with the fairy tale “Medved išče pestunjo” (“The Bear Looks for a Nanny”) at the publisher Mladinska knjiga, and later worked for foreign publishers. In 2021 she was nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA).27.04.1907–01.08.1998
France Mihelič
A Slovene painter and printmaker from the village of Virmaše near Škofja Loka. He studied in Zagreb, taught in Kruševac and Ptuj, and after the war spent almost twenty-five years teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. He won the Prešeren Award three times and the Levstik Award four times for book illustrations. Ptuj preserves his legacy in a gallery that bears his name.28.01.1927–15.03.2007
Smiljan Rozman
Smiljan Rozman (1927–2007) wrote novels about war and the “little man”, comic stories, books for children, and scripts for radio, television and puppet films. He was born in Celje, grew up in Maribor, and as a teenager was sent on forced labour to Germany and France. He won the Prešeren Foundation Award for the novel “The Company” and the Levstik Award for the children’s book “Tejč the Reporter Reports”.27.04.1927–10.04.2023
Drago Tršar
Drago Tršar (1927–2023) joined the partisans at fourteen and drew for his brigade, then at sixteen came to Ljubljana to study. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1951, founded “Group 53” and showed work at the Venice and São Paulo biennials. He made “The Equilibrists” in Ljubljana’s Tivoli Park and a monument to the revolution in Ljubljana.15.01.1951–?
Evgeni Irshai
Evgeni Irshai was born in Leningrad in 1951 into a family of musicians, graduated there from the conservatory in composition and piano, and in 1991 moved to Slovakia. He writes chamber and orchestral music, including concertos for soloist and orchestra; among his works are a song cycle to poems by Arseny Tarkovsky and a Requiem for the Poet. He teaches in Bratislava and has won a Slovak and a Ukrainian prize.25.12.1903–24.09.2000
Paew Snidvongseni
Paew Snidvongseni (1903–2000) was taken as a girl into the household of Prince Asdang Dejavudh, where she was trained in court dance, and became one of the best-known performers of her day. After returning from Europe she worked at the Fine Arts Department, created 44 dance pieces and taught several future National Artists. In 1985 she was named National Artist of Thailand in performing arts, in the first year of the award.07.06.1932–10.08.1996