Follow us
Dalloul Art Foundation
OSAMA SAID OSAMA SAID

OSAMA SAID, Palestine (1957)

Bio

Born in 1957, in Nahf, a town in Galilee, Palestine, Osama Said is an expressionist painter who trained in banking before shifting to fine arts. He studied at the Bezalel Art Academy in West...

Born in 1957, in Nahf, a town in Galilee, Palestine, Osama Said is an expressionist painter who trained in banking before shifting to fine arts. He studied at the Bezalel Art Academy in West Jerusalem then moved to Germany in 1981. He studied at the Hochschule der Künste – University of the Arts in Berlin, where he trained under renowned German -Syrian painter Marwan Kassab Bachi and graduated with high honors. Said remained in Germany for sixteen years, working as a full-time artist before he moved back to Palestine. Upon his return, he was struck by the painful reality of life in the occupied territories.

As an artist who lived in exile and as one belonging to the Palestinian minority living within the state of Israel, Said depicts alienation and displacement in his art. While abroad, he painted Palestine from memory and evocative images of pastoral landscapes. He created figurative paintings featuring olive groves as a symbol of resilience and others, showing Mother and Son in which the mother represents the homeland and caretaker. Later, Said produced abstract paintings, ones suspended in time. Houses seemed reduced to vertical and horizontal brush strokes, and figures appeared hazy, reflecting a decaying temporality and a weakened existence over which he has no control. Said applies several layers of thick paint onto his canvases, which often appear as squeegeed in an attempt to erase their content. The artist re-acts the systematic effort exerted by the Israelis to eradicate the history of Palestine since the 1948 Nakba. The time-space relationship can be sensed in his depictions both in the images of emptiness or absence of people from their surroundings. Jerusalem, for instance, a recurrent theme in Said's oeuvre, has no architectural representation in his abstract expressionist paintings. Instead, one can indicate its presence from the yellow paint clustered hinting to the dome of the rock against a blue background or in a setting of earthy red.

Osama currently lives and works in Galilee, Palestine.

This is a short biography. The full version , along with research, CV and sources will be posted soon. Stay tuned and visit us often or become a member to be notified of our updates.

+
CV

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022

Through The Color Terrain, Zawyeh Art Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

2017

Afula Municipal Art Gallery, Afula, Occupied Palestine

2016

Maryam House Art Gallery, Ramallah, Palestine

2015

Jaffa Theatre, Tel Aviv, Occupied Palestine
Gallery One, Ramallah, Palestine

2008

Casting Its Shadow Far ahead, Kibbutz Art Gallery, Tel Aviv, Occupied Palestine
Phoenix Gallery, Potsdam, Germany

2007

City Gallery, Tamra Village, Occupied Palestine

2006

Center of Culture, Hundertwasserhaus, Vienna, Austria

1999

Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah, Palestine

1992

Galerie Arabesque, Brussel, Belgium

1989

Timeart – Arttime, Galerie am Chamissoplatz, Berlin, Germany

Selected Group Exhibitions

2018

JERUSALEM: 51 YEARS OF OCCUPATION, Zawyeh Art Gallery, Ramallah, Palestine

2015

Gallery One, Ramallah, Palestine

2012

Umm al-Fahm Gallery, Umm al-Fahm, Occupied Palestine

2010

Art Sawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

2009

Men in the Sun, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya, Occupied Palestine
Art Hall Wiesenburg, Wiesenburg, Germany

2001

Celebration of Celebrations, Beit Al-Karmah Gallery, Haifa, Palestine

1999

Jordan National Museum of Fine Arts, Amman, Jordan

1992

Galerie im Hofgarten, Neuburg an der Donau, Germany

1991

Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum, Berlin, Germany

1990

Cultureseason, Centre King Hassan II, Asilah, Morocco

Collections

Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Jordan National Museum for Fine Arts, Amman, Jordan
Imago Mundi Collection, Italy

+
Exhibitions

OSAMA SAID Artwork

Become a Member

Join us in our endless discovery of modern and contemporary Arab art


We’re GDPR compliant.
TermsCookiesPrivacy Policies