What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible.
Umberto Eco, Spiegel Interview, November 2009
Shooq AlShawi practice presents a conceptual approach to painting that blends gestural abstraction with thematic explorations of faith, memory, and existence.
Paint breathes, and colour becomes visible vibration, transforming unseen harmonies into something felt. AlShawi’s linear mark-making, applied by hand, brush, and stick, dissolves as the strokes shift between control and release. Layers of oil paint, in all their depth and texture, create an infinite sense of oneness, at once still, yet moving and pulsing throughout.
Portrayals of flowers bridge theory and practice, embodying both presence and impermanence, as their breath transcends into a third dimension. Often, they emerge through chance or experience, and through them AlShawi takes a leap of faith, surrendering simultaneously to chaos and calm, existence and nonexistence, and the meaning that lies between them.
A convergence of Gestural, Baroque, and Islamic art influences informs her artistic practice. Her deeply energetic paintings evoke what prayer calls forth within the vastness and mystery of existence. For Al-Shawi, breath and peace form a conversation with the viewer when engaging with her work, creating a space in which we may continue to bloom beyond form. This is what she hopes to offer: an invitation to exist within the infinite.
Shooq AlShawi is a Bahraini, London-based painter. She holds a BA (Hons) from University of the Arts London, London College of Fashion (2010), and a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design from Newcastle College (2006).
AlShawi’s work was shortlisted for ArtEvol 2025: “Voices from the Undefined” at the Saatchi Gallery. She was recently interviewed by Frieze, and her paintings were featured as part of the Frieze Connect Member Spotlight Artist programme. She is also a member of the Beyond Studios programme and the Ouroboros Art School critique groups.
In 2025, AlShawi’s paintings were exhibited at Apsara: ‘A Room’, curated by Letizia Agostini. Later this year she will participate in the Turps Banana Spring 2026 Residency. Currently, her work can be seen at the 52nd Bahrain Annual Fine Arts exhibition in Bahrain, closing on 19 April 2026.
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Courtesy and ©Shooq AlShawi, Janet Rady Fine Art and Renée Pfister Art & Gallery Consultancy 2025.