Sara Shamma is a renowned Syrian artist whose practice focuses on death and humanity expressed mainly through self-portraits. Her paintings depicted various stories about human cases, such as motherhood, old age, heritage and others.
Shamma, who was born in the city of Damascus and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in 1998, was influenced by the experiences, artistic styles and techniques of the major artworks of the world artists.
She aspires to have no limits to her activities that drives her to create new paintings with different topics inspired by social, human and natural events and images to produce a masterful work of art.
Shamma, who was honored by the Ministry of Culture at the Damascus Opera House in 2021, and was chosen in 2010 as a “famous partner” artist for the United Nations World Food Program WFP, said in a statement to SANA: “Renewed thought and freedom, despite their presence in the history of art in small proportions, are two factors in the power and distinction of art including music, theater, painting or sculpture.”
She added: “The artist’s learning of other languages along with constant reading, research and follow-up, in addition to participating in foreign exhibitions, is essential for moving out of his narrow surroundings into the world, which opens a greater horizon for him in the world of art, specifically the younger generation”.
The female and her connection to motherhood is a topic og great interest to Shamma. She views the mother as a state of creating something valuable, which is the child who is part of her, and will grow up to form a new personality.
Moreover, Shamma considers herself as part of the heritage, as she views it as the history that extends over thousands of years, as the land from which she came, the soil that she touches, the air that she breathes, and the world that she sees, including life, existence, art, and everything that is on this earth and in the space.
Shamma participated in many solo and collective exhibitions around the world and won many international awards.
Rawaa Ghanam