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SHADI AL-ATALLAH

SHADI AL-ATALLAH

b. 1994, Saudi Arabia
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Shadi Al-Atallah Biography

Shadi Al-Atallah is a London-based artist whose work combines drawing and painting to explore the human body in moments of transformation, connection and vulnerability. His pieces depict psycho-sexual conflict between two or more figures embroiled in intimate entanglements. Bodies are often fragmented or blurred, grappling with each other and the space around them.

Al-Atallah’s recent work explores holes as sites of transformation. From black holes and the underworld to bodily orifices and wounds, he examines how voids may dissolve boundaries and shift identities. Like his earlier investigations of wrestling, Al-Atallah uses mythology and religion as lenses to explore masculinity, power and desire. His figures often inhabit liminal spaces - undefined domestic environments where the distinction between inside and outside has been transgressed.

​Navigating the physical and spiritual, Al-Atallah uses the body as a site for connection, resistance, and change. His work has been exhibited at Goldsmiths CCA (UK), The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (US), and Palazzo Tiepolo Passi (Italy).

Text courtesy the artist

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Spotlights
The word transition suggests going from one place to another, but I like to think of it as entering a hole, since holes feel endless.
Shadi Al-Atallah Has a Theory About Holes
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Explore Shadi Al-Atallah's Exhibitions

Contemporary art exhibition Group Exhibition Eighteen Painters at Andrew Kreps Gallery 22 Cortlandt Alley United States
Group Exhibition Eighteen Painters Andrew Kreps Gallery 21 June–31 August 2024
22 Cortlandt Alley

Representative Artworks

Shadi Al-Atallah, Gnashing of Teeth (2024). Acrylic, oil pastel chinagraph pencil, and ink on 300 gsm watercolour paper. 73 x 51 cm. Courtesy the artist and Guts Gallery, London.
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Shadi Al-Atallah, sunken into the earth (2024). Acrylic, charcoal, ink, and chinagraph. Courtesy the artist and Niru Ratnam, London. Photo: Studio Damian Griffiths.
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Spread from Shadi Al-Atallah's zine Holes (2025). Courtesy the artist.
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Shadi Al-Atallah, Hunger (2024). Acrylic, chinagraph pencil, and ink on 300 gsm watercolour paper. 64 x 45 cm. Courtesy the artist and Guts Gallery, London.
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Shadi Al-Atallah, rolled up in his right hand (2025). Acrylic, charcoal, ink, and chinagraph pencil. 50 x 50 x 3.5 cm. Courtesy the artist and Niru Ratnam, London. Photo: Studio Damian Griffiths.
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Shadi Al-Atallah, one to w(hole) to one (2025). Acrylic, charcoal, ink, and chinagraph pencil. 50 x 50 x 3.5 cm. Courtesy the artist and Niru Ratnam, London. Photo: Studio Damian Griffiths.
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Shadi Al-Atallah, a seeping warmth (2025). Acrylic, charcoal, ink, and chinagraph pencil. 90 x 70 x 3.5 cm. Courtesy the artist and Niru Ratnam, London. Photo: Studio Damian Griffiths.
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Shadi Al-Atallah, to wrap, to wrap (2025). Acrylic, charcoal, ink, and chinagraph pencil. 100 x 165 x 3.5 cm. Courtesy the artist and Niru Ratnam, London. Photo: Studio Damian Griffiths.
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Shadi Al-Atallah in Ocula Magazine

Shadi Al-Atallah Has a Theory About Holes
Spotlight Shadi Al-Atallah Has a Theory About Holes Emily Steer For Shadi Al‑Atallah, a hole is ‘a portal to infinite possibility’—whether physical, spiritual, or psychic. Emily Steer met with the Saudi Arabia‑born painter in their London studio.

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