Shaiban | Contemporary Artist: Artworks & Biography

Shaiban’s artistic journey as designer, sculptor, and painter was begun in childhood. He remembers a clown with a vacuous smile and bright outfit that has always surprised him: with a big smile, and a coloured face, he held in his hands a white dove without ever losing his natural joy. Faced with an unstable, incoherent world in conflict, his message is universal: only beauty and love can transcend the frustrations and sorrows that we experience. \n""I think the language of beauty leads us to a more harmonious life."" During his studies in Baghdad, he was accompanied by many friends studying theatre to help achieve certain tasks. Theatre, and especially the circus, was for him a kind of breath of fresh air in his daily life: ""I saw clown acrobats take form in my painting. I was fascinated as they widened my horizon like the colourful birds that were found on sale on the market."" Influenced by the Orient, he studied ancient drawings during his university studies: Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian Art. \nHis work is heavily influenced by the landscapes of his country: painting the sun, the harvesting of palm and black skin. A trip to Europe with his father gave him his future influences. He feels close to Goya, Henri Rousseau, Chagall, and Modigliani. He started drawing in the style of Jean Dubuffet for a ""Fauvist period"" before falling ""in love"" with the surreal and metaphysical universe of René Magritte. However, he intends to be universal in his approach and conceives art as a way of being and living. In his technique, he uses collages on canvas or on paper. He also incorporates ropes. In the past, he has also worked with glass and metal, mixed with wood. Each piece is original and the presence of the clown is a stupefying question on the world, its future, what is going on. The process of creation is, for him, an inner state, allowing for the valuation of new ideas and concepts.\n