About Habib Hajallie
Links
Education
2014 - 2017
Loughborough University
Awards
2022
UK New Artist of The Year
2021
The Drawing Society: Young Artist Award
2020
Embracing Our Differences Exhibition: Best in Show
2020
SIgnature Art Prize: Drawing & Printmaking 2020
2019
The Drawing Society: Young Artist Award
2016
Fine Art Trade Guild Student artist of the year
There are no upcoming events
Show previous events Hide previous events
Previous events
Event: Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition 2021
Dates: 15 Apr 2021 - 24 Apr 2021
'The Pa' was highly commended for the De Lazslo Foundation Prize.
Event: Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 208th Exhibition
Dates: 1 Sep 2020 - 12 Sep 2020
2 works selected for the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 208th Exhibition - Mall Galleries, London
Event: Royal Society of British Artists 303rd annual exhibition
Dates: 19 Feb 2020 - 29 Feb 2020
Royal Society of British Artists 303rd annual exhibition 2 works selected for the prestigious open exhibition
Event: Royal Society of British Artists: Rising Stars 2018
Dates: 9 Mar 2018 - 23 May 2018
20 Semi-finalists showing the best recent Fine Art graduates in the UK.
Event: Emerald Winter Pride Open
Dates: 19 Jan 2018 - 5 Jun 2018
Emerald Winter Pride Open Art Competition - showing amongst 20 finalist from over 300 entrants
Event: Diaspora Dialogue
Dates: 18 Oct 2017 - 25 Oct 2017
Exhibition featuring artists of Caribbean or African heritage.
Event: New Artist Fair
Dates: 8 Sep 2017 - 11 Sep 2017
Art Fair featuring 100 emerging artists.
Event: Guild artists exhibition 2016
Dates: 1 May 2016 - 29 May 2016
Fine Art Guild Trade Exhibition 2016. Featuring my award winning work 'Jammer'
Event: Royal Society of British Artists: Rising Stars
Dates: 1 Feb 2016 - 28 Feb 2016
Royal Society of British Artists: Rising Stars 2016. The best emerging artist under the age of 25 in the UK.
Biography
I am an honouree of The Forbes 30 under 30 list for Europe 2023 and the winner of The UK New Artist of the Year. In March 2022 I was elected as a member of The Royal Society of British Artists.
My practice looks to empower often marginalised minorities through the exploration of identity within portraiture. Confronting socio-political issues within my drawings can act as a catalyst for a discourse regarding the perception of various demographics as being of lesser humanistic value. Specifically, with the disenfranchised often being undermined by mainstream media; somewhat paradoxically reflecting an archaic hierarchy of status, similar to colonial ideologies.
Using antique texts and maps as the canvases for my works enables me to pragmatically re-contextualise ephemera, creating a cohesion between the concepts informing the work and the aesthetic output. As I empower various figures; I simultaneously do so with the ground used, presenting them within new contexts. Placing myself or family members as the subjects of my portraits evokes a sense of immediacy, apropos to navigating the intersection of my western upbringing and familial west African culture.
Informed by my Sierra Leonean and Lebanese heritage, I am conscious of representing figures that have historically been conspicuously omitted from traditional British portraiture. I call upon anecdotal references to portray scenes that are occasionally quasi surrealist representations; confronting lingering ethnocentrisms that are still embedded within modern western society.
I employ delicate mark making techniques with precise strokes of the everyday ballpoint pen. This process is influenced by sketches from the high renaissance. I meticulously build layers of tonality leading to an element of photorealism. Through an almost contradictory process of using this relatively modern art medium with a classical approach to mark making: I look to celebrate authentic drawing within the digital age.
At the core of my practice, I depict motifs that contradict largely accepted revisionist narratives apropos to West African Histories. The portraits investigate how identity can be constructed by historical oppression, with semblances of antiquated ideologies at the root of nuanced prejudices that I have personally experienced. Ultimately, my work looks to embolden individuals that feel as though they have been labelled as the ‘other’ in any manifestation.