Sara Shamma

Born in Damascus, Syria in 1975. Sara Shamma is renowned painter whose practice focuses on the expression of death and humanity. She graduated from the Painting Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Damascus in 1998, and in 2016 moved to London after receiving an Exceptional Talent Visa.

Shamma’s works can be divided into series that often reflect prolonged periods of research. Her life-like visceral depictions confront an increasingly taboo subject in contemporary culture, investigating the impact of grief and deep internal emotions. Impacted by Syrian conflict, and the portrayal of her subjects she works mainly from life and photographs and uses oils to create hyper-realistic scenes.

She has exhibited widely, and her works can be found in a number of both public and private collections globally. In 2019, Shamma was announced as a King’s Artist in residence by King’s College London.

Sara Shamma currently lives and works in London, England.