Hisham Sharif
Bahraini, B. 1993
Hisham Sharif is a Bahraini artist who started his career as a finance professional. In 2017, he discovered his passion for art and held a successful debut solo exhibition, Frightening the Dark, at the Bahrain Arts Society. His artistic growth continued in 2019, as he took part in several international group exhibitions and won a recognition award at the 45th Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition. Following this, he completed two artist residencies at Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, NYC, and AlRiwaq in Bahrain. Scroll through to explore Hisham's artworks and extended biography.
Featured Artwork
Outlaws
His painting career began predominantly in black and white, with Hisham admitting he was struggling and “didn’t feel colour at the time”, creating dramatic figurative works during this period and beginning his Outlaws series, a collection immersed in darkness which explores the political situation in the wider region and the dynamic between the oppressor and the oppressed. Soon after committing himself entirely to painting, he moved away from figuration and onto seascapes in the Rage series (2018-2019), which he painted with great sensitivity and depth, subtly allowing new and muted tones into his everyday palette. In these works, Hisham explores the power of the sea, stating in an accompanying text: “[the wave] plays its role of violence and destruction but also creation and rebirth through the depths of time. We go but the waves continue.”
Text by Mysa Kafil-Hussain
Biography
Hisham Sharif is a Bahraini artist who started his career as a finance professional. However, in 2017, he discovered his passion for art and held a successful debut solo exhibition, Frightening the Dark, at the Bahrain Arts Society. His artistic growth continued in 2019, as he took part in several international group exhibitions and won a recognition award at the 45th Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition. Following this success, he completed two artist residencies at Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, NYC, and AlRiwaq in Bahrain. These residencies laid the foundation for his continued success both in his home country and internationally.
Hisham's art is guided by both emotion and technique, combining daily scenes and memories of his heritage. His landscape paintings show him at a reflective crossroads, where he sees himself as an artist immersed in an ocean of color. Hisham works to combine time and collapse recorded visual images with pictorial memory. It is this complex build-up of consistently evolving imagery that finds its way into the painting process.
Hisham has extensively exhibited his artworks in Bahrain, solidifying his position at the forefront of the Kingdom's artistic community. In Bahrain, he has participated in group shows at Al Riwaq, ArtBab, and the Arts Centre at the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities. In 2022, he exhibited a series of works alongside his father and pioneering artist, Abdulrahim Sharif, at the Arts Centre in Bahrain. Additionally, Hisham has presented works at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Singapore (2018) and La Biennale Paris, France (2019). Most recently, he was one of four artists who presented their works at Rite of Passage, an exhibition at Al Riwaq, Bahrain showcasing their debuting artist cohort.
Exhibition History
Solo Exhibitions
2017 Frightening the Dark, Bahrain Arts Society, Bahrain
Group Exhibitions
2023 Rite of Passage, AlRiwaq Gallery, Bahrain
2022 Sharif & Sharif, Arts Centre – Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, Bahrain
2020 Artist Collective, Arts Centre – Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, Bahrain
2019 La Biennale Paris, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2019 ArtBab Art Fair, Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, Bahrain
2019 Bahrain 45th Annual Fine Art Show, Bahrain
2019 ArtBab Art Fair, Manama, Bahrain
2018 Legacy, Museum of Contemporary Art, Singapore
2017 Diversity, Saatchi Gallery, London, Bahrain
2017 The Nest, AlRiwaq Gallery, Adliya, Bahrain
2016 Views, Ritz Carlton Hotel, Manama, Bahrain