Sara Shamma combines oil and acrylic on canvas to demonstrate her technical mastery in the dream-like Untitled (2016). The painting’s soft background is filled with chalk-like, pink hues, akin to a Gaussian blur. The hyperreal children in the background are juxtaposed with the central subject: a highly stylized young girl painted with thick, visible brushstrokes. Though the main character appears in a different realm as the other subjects, Shamma is able to enrapture the viewer in both the background and foreground scenes equally – this is the dazzling feature of her work.

Sara Shamma is a renowned painter whose work explores death, grief, and deep internal emotions – all subject matter contemporary culture often shies away from. Her practice often involves several years of research and is expressed in self-portraits or visceral, life-like depictions of children using oil paint. The Syrian War has had a distinct impact on the way that Shamma portrays her subjects. She uses her interest and study of the psychology of suffering to create narratives around subjects of war, modern slavery and human trafficking. 

Shamma graduated in 1988 from the Painting Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Damascus University, and later taught at the Adham Ismail Fine Arts Institute. She moved to London in 2016 after receiving an Exceptional Talent Visa, where she currently lives and works. She has won several awards for her work including the first prize at the Latakia Biennial, Syria (2001), fourth prize at the BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London (2004), first prize at the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize, The South Australian Museum (2008), and fourth prize and special mention at the Florence Biennial (2013). She has participated in a number of international solo and group exhibitions in London, Kuwait, Dubai, Damascus, Madrid, Doha, Washington DC, and Sharjah. Her works can be found in both public and private collections around the globe.