09.05.1945–31.01.2025
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Artists
Biographies, facts and images with open sources and verified rights.
Found: 1775
1940–12.09.2024
Safeya Binzagr
Safeya Binzagr (1940–2024) was born in Jeddah, studied in Egypt and London, and in 1970 became the first woman in Saudi Arabia to hold a solo exhibition. She painted the daily life and costumes of the Hejaz from the accounts of older women and from her own photographs. In 2000 she opened the Darat Safeya Binzagr in Jeddah, a museum and studio, the only museum in the country devoted to a single artist.?–?
Huda Totonji
Huda Totonji was born in Riyadh, studied graphic design and fine art in the United States, and earned an ijazah (a master’s certificate) in Arabic calligraphy in Jordan. She works with calligraphy, mixed media, installation and performance, teaches design in Jeddah and has lectured at dozens of universities. She was the first person from Saudi Arabia to lecture at Harvard University.1989–present
Sarah Mohanna Al Abdali
Sarah Mohanna Al Abdali (born 1989) began with graffiti in the old part of Jeddah: one of her street pieces responded to the overdevelopment around Mecca. She studied graphic design in Saudi Arabia and traditional arts in London. She works as an illustrator, painter and ceramicist, and has shown in Saudi Arabia and at the British Museum.?–?
Ola Hejazi
Ola Hejazi lives in Jeddah, paints and makes prints, and teaches by day. Her work draws on the letters of the Arabic alphabet and the traces of printed ink, and it carries no titles: she believes a title narrows the viewer’s imagination. She has exhibited in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Germany and South Korea.1967–present
Lulwah Al-Homoud
Lulwah Al-Homoud (born 1967) was born in Riyadh and studied sociology, then Islamic art and communication design in London. She turns Arabic letters and geometric forms into complex abstract compositions on paper. She co-curated the exhibition “Edge of Arabia” (2008), has had solo shows in Sharjah and Riyadh, and won the national award for visual arts (2021).1979–present
Hana Hajjar
Hana Hajjar was born in 1979 in Medina, the youngest of nine children, and began drawing cartoons at twelve. Her first drawings were about the war in Palestine and called for it to end. Later she drew for the newspaper Arab News and other publications, and taught cartooning and oil painting. She is known as the only woman in Saudi Arabia specialising in political cartoons.1961–present
Desmond Sim
The Singaporean Desmond Sim has written about thirty plays, almost all of them staged in professional theatres in Singapore, Malaysia and the United States. His poetry collection “Places Where I’ve Been” won a Merit Prize in the 1993 Singapore Literature Prize. He later became known as a self-taught painter of figurative scenes in the Peranakan style.1937–23.10.1997
Kim Lim
Kim Lim grew up in Singapore, Penang and Malacca, moved to London at eighteen to study and stayed there for the rest of her life. She carved abstract sculptures in wood and later in stone, marble and slate, and made etchings alongside them. At the First Hayward Annual in 1977 she was the only woman and the only non-white artist in the show.1910–15.02.1985
Chen Chong Swee
Chen Chong Swee finished school in Swatow and graduated from the Xinhua Academy of Fine Arts, then arrived in Singapore in 1931 and taught there for more than thirty years. In 1952 he went to Bali with three colleagues; that trip is linked to the formation of the Nanyang School of painting in Singapore. In his work Chinese ink is joined to local and Southeast Asian subjects.03.05.1949–22.03.2018
Morgan Chua
Morgan Chua began with drawings in an army magazine, became at twenty-three the first art director of the Hong Kong weekly Far Eastern Economic Review, and drew the leaders of Asia for it. After the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989 he published a book of more than a hundred cartoons. In 1999 he returned to Singapore and produced books on its history.1936–12.08.2022
Lai Kui Fang
Lai Kui Fang (1936–2022) grew up in a fruit hawker’s family and made his first drawings in charcoal on the wooden walls of his home. In 1963 he won a government scholarship to the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, spent fifteen years in France and received French honours. Later he painted official portraits of Singapore’s statesmen.28.09.1921–03.02.2025
Lim Tze Peng
Lim Tze Peng (1921–2025) taught children and headed a primary school until he was sixty, and took up painting seriously only after retiring in 1981. What followed was a series of about three hundred ink works showing old Singapore: the river, Boat Quay, the streets of Chinatown. In 2003 he received the Cultural Medallion.1974–present
Namiko Chan Takahashi
Namiko Chan Takahashi was born in Singapore in 1974, graduated in law, but chose painting and studied at the Art Students League of New York. In 2006 her painting “Charisse”, a portrait of a nude woman, won the United Overseas Bank Painting of the Year award. She works in the genre of realist portraiture.1967–present
Abdullah Al Saadi
The Emirati artist Abdullah Al Saadi (born 1967) studied English literature in Al Ain and then Japanese art in Kyoto. He is counted among the “Five”, the pioneers of conceptual art in the UAE. His work has been shown at biennials in Sharjah, São Paulo and Venice, and in museums in Bonn and Aachen.23.01.1900–28.04.1994
Adamantios Diamantis
Adamantios Diamantis studied in London, taught art at the Pancyprian Gymnasium in Nicosia from 1926 to 1962 and became the first director of the Cyprus Folk Art Museum. His best-known work, “The World of Cyprus”, is a canvas 17.5 metres long, painted between 1967 and 1972. All his life he painted the island, its peasants and its landscapes.23.05.1948–07.02.2013
Niki Marangou
Niki Marangou (1948–2013), from Limassol, wrote poetry, prose and fairy tales for children and also painted: she had seven solo exhibitions, the first in 1975. She studied sociology in West Berlin, worked as a dramaturge at the Cyprus Theatre Organisation and ran a bookshop in Nicosia. She received the Cavafy prize and the poetry prize of the Athens Academy.1972–present
Austin Camilleri
Austin Camilleri (born 1972) grew up on Gozo and works in installation, sculpture, drawing, painting and video. He covered Maltese rocks in gold leaf, carved lines by local poets into cliffs and stone, and for “Homo immortalis” made nine marble busts of dictators. His work has been shown at the Venice Biennale and in Brussels.1719–1765
Alberto Pullicino
Alberto Pullicino (1719–1765) was a Maltese artist born and likely lifelong resident of Valletta, Malta. Son of Giuseppe Pullicino and Angela Cantone, he is recognized for his connection to Maltese art in the 18th century.1987–present
Bouthayna Al Muftah
The Qatari artist Bouthayna Al Muftah (born 1987) works in printmaking, drawing and typography, and uses black ink in nearly every piece. Her poster for the 2022 FIFA World Cup was shown at Hamad International Airport in Doha and at the Design Museum in London. She held the exhibition “Echoes” at Mathaf in 2018.?–?
Fatma Al Sharshani
Fatma Al Sharshani, from Qatar, trained as a chemist and food scientist, and began studying calligraphy in 2011 in courses at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. Her murals were commissioned by Qatar Museums, including one in Portland, and an Arabic inscription of her design appeared on the Paris Saint-Germain kit in the match of 5 January 2025.1943–01.10.2012
Jassim Zaini
Jassim Zaini (1943–2012) painted a billboard of the singer Farid al-Atrash at twelve, above his father’s carpet shop in Souq Waqif, and in 1968 became the first Qatari with a degree in fine arts. He taught, ran museum administration and painted “Qatari Features” (1972), one of the best-known paintings in the country.?–?
Jawaher bint Majid Al Saud
Jawaher bint Majid Al Saud is a member of the Saudi royal family and the first woman in Saudi Arabia to hold the title of patron of the arts. She is recognized as an artist and jewelry designer connected to Saudi national culture.1986–present