Hussein Shamia

Hussein Shamia (b. 1991, Gaza) is a self-taught Palestinian visual artist based in Brussels, Belgium. His practice, developed over more than a decade, explores memory, exile, and resilience.

Hussein Shamia (b. 1991, Gaza) is a self-taught Palestinian visual artist based in Brussels, Belgium. His practice, developed over more than a decade, explores memory, exile, and resilience, drawing from his own journey from Gaza to Sweden, Greece, and finally Belgium. Along the way, he has built a presence in the contemporary art scene through exhibitions, workshops, and community projects.

Embracing an expressionist realist style and working with oil, acrylic, clay, and other materials, Shamia creates layered works filled with images and elements that speak about absence and longing. Fragmented faces, fading silhouettes, and shadowed figures recur throughout his paintings, forming a visual language that reflects both personal and collective histories of displacement.

For Shamia, painting is both expression and testimony. His works stand as visual records, merging the personal with the collective, stories and History, and bearing witness to war, loss, and the ongoing struggle of the Palestinian people. 

Symbols play a key role in his practice. The cactus, for example—whose name in Arabic also means “patience”—appears as a metaphor for Palestine and its people, surviving with little care yet standing strong. The donkey is another recurring figure, representing both those left without care and the dehumanization experienced by people in Gaza.

Shamia is currently active in the artistic workplace of Globe Aroma in Brussels.