Born in Beirut in 1973, Shawki Youssef obtained his BFA at the Lebanese University of Beirut in 1994, before completing his master's degree at Saint Joseph University in 2007. He lives and works in Beirut, Lebanon.

The fine arts and intercultural mediation are two disciplines that he studied and then integrated them into his work, which explores the human body in its different conditions. His dislocated figures capture the collective human struggle, culminating in a lively observation of contemporary societies stricken by violence, war and poverty.

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Attempting to create an uncensored flow from the subconscious to the canvas itself, Shawki Youssef approaches the physical performance of painting with a deliberately never preconceived impulsiveness. Youssef's anonymous bodies are an illustration of the collective, of a society affected by war, poverty and disease, and which the artist leaves - in a murderous mess - to put his individual pieces back together.

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"In these recent works, I play on what must be made visible. The subject is dispersed in a game of" hide and seek ", where it is impossible to grasp the complete image, in this uncertain space which is ours. . " 

Shawki Youssef