Shawki Youssef is a Lebanese contemporary multimedia artist born in 1973, in Beirut. He studied at the Institute of Fine Arts of the Lebanese University and later received his MSc at St Joseph University, in intercultural mediation. Combining both his subjects of study, Youssef examines the impact of conflict and political instability in his region on the human psyche. The artist ruminates over the ideas of human frailty and trauma, often experimenting with the frailty of his artistic supports and mediums in parallel: sometimes imbibing entire sketches/paintings in water and observing the affected results. 

Youssef’s art is haunting, it is sometimes loud and electric and at other times, evokes a sense of silent suffering. He somehow creates moments of life and moments of death in the same breath.

In this work, bodies seem to be washing up into the frame in crooked positions, their flesh slowly disappearing into blank space, the artist exploring physical obsolescence and pain in a striking manner.

The artist has most recently exhibited in Paris, Beirut and Lisbon, and has participated in collective exhibitions, the most recent being “Glimpses Of Talent” by Urbanist Art, Dubai. Notable collections that house his works are the ones of the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE and SPM (Salsali Private Museum), Dubai, UAE.