Shurooq Amin

Shurooq Amin is an interdisciplinary artist known for her provocative mixed media paintings. Following a series of critically acclaimed exhibitions in her native Kuwait, Amin has emerged as a leading feminist voice in the Arabian Gulf, often speaking on the intersections of art, politics, and social issues that influence the region’s cultural landscape. Amin’s bold sometimes-controversial portrayal of the hidden side of Khaleeji society, which captures the existence of significant subcultures, urges viewers to consider the malleability of religious norms, notions of piety in public and private spaces, and the impact of globalisation. As a result, Amin is recognised as an influential member of a generation of artists that is redefining the parameters of regional visual culture.

 

Utilising a postmodern approach to portraiture that combines photography and painting, Amin depicts her anonymous, multi-generational figures with humour and irony as she reveals the intrinsic contradictions of a conservative state and explores the cultural chasms of modern-day global society.

 

Exhibiting since the mid 1990s, Amin’s paintings are housed in public and private collections in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. A monograph highlighting two decades of the artist’s oeuvre was published by Ayyam Gallery in 2014.

 

Amin’s selected solo and group exhibitions include: Ayyam Gallery Beirut (2016); Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait (2016); In the Eye of the Storm, an official collateral event of the 56th Venice Biennale (2015); Ayyam Gallery London (2014); Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai (2014); Ayyam Gallery Al Quoz, Dubai (2013); Lahd Gallery, London (2011); CAN, New York (2010); Tilal Gallery, Kuwait (2010); and the International Cairo Art Biennale (2008). In 2016, Amin received an invitation to participate in the Villa Lena Foundation Residency program, taking place in Tuscany, Italy.

 

In addition to Amin’s noteworthy career as a visual artist, she is a widely published, Pushcart Prize nominated poet, and holds a doctorate in Creative Writing and Ekphrasis from Warnborough College, England.