Shooq AlShawi

As If it Would Last Forever - Painting, Oil and stick on linen

2026

Shooq AlShawi (b. 1988, Bahrain) is a Bahraini, London- based painter whose practice explores legacy as an infinite ripple connecting past and present. Drawing on gestural abstraction, Baroque painting, and Islamic art, her work translates inherited visual languages into contemporary form. Breath and movement guide her mark-making, where oil, oil stick, and pastel combine to create layered surfaces that pulse with rhythm and continuity. AlShawi studied at the University of the Arts London, London College of Fashion (BA Hons, 2010), and completed a Foundation in Art and Design at Newcastle College (2006). Working primarily at large scale, AlShawi’s compositions blend structure and spontaneity. Linear gestures and repeated marks build depth and texture, while light and colour converge to materialize presence and vibration. Still life and floral subjects often appear at moments of transition, allowing her to explore impermanence and transformation. Her paintings invite viewers to inhabit a space where abstraction articulates oneness, and the infinite is felt as an interior condition. AlShawi’s work has been shortlisted for ArtEvol 2025: Voices from the Undefined at the Saatchi Gallery and will be shown in 2026 at the Bahrain National Museum’s Annual Art Exhibition, alongside group exhibitions in London and Bahrain. She will also join a residency at Turps Banana. Working from her London studio, AlShawi continues to create paintings that connect audiences with the enduring resonance of presence, breath, and legacy.