Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Zaki Shafqa (1945-2021) is a Palestinian visual artist who was born in the town of Aqar , near Ramla . He was displaced with his family to Gaza following the events of the Nakba in 1948. He studied at Bir al-Saba’ School in Rafah until high school, from which he graduated. He then joined Cairo University and obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts in 1969. He moved to Amman after graduation. He has been a member of the General Union of Palestinian Visual Artists since 1970, and one of the founders of the Jordanian Visual Artists Association in 1976. He died in Amman in 2021.
His professional and artistic career
Zaki worked as a teacher in Saudi Arabia from 1970 to 1976, after which he returned to Jordan and worked as an art teacher in UNRWA schools for 25 years. He represented Jordan in the Third World Caricature Exhibition organized by the African Journalists Union in 1990, and designed numerous book covers , novel illustrations, and children's books and stories . In his early artistic career, he was influenced by Egyptian artists since the late 1960s . After his first exhibition and in the mid- 1970s , he turned towards expressionism , realistic expressionism, and the search for experimentation, using color scraping and exploring the surface of the painting. He became a professional caricaturist and turned to drawing social and political caricatures. After 2006, he returned to artistic work using acrylic , oil, and other media on canvas , and he was committed to Arab and Islamic issues in general and the issue of his home country, the Palestinian issue , in particular. He worked as a cartoonist in many local and international newspapers, including: a daily cartoonist for Al-Dustour newspaper , and a cartoonist for Mehr International News published in Paris , Al-Shaab newspaper, Al-Arab Al-Alamiya newspaper published in London , Al-Rai newspaper in Jordan, and Al-Sijil weekly newspaper.
opposition
He participated in many solo and group exhibitions, including:
His first solo exhibition was at the Young Women's Christian Association in Amman , Jordan in 1970.
His second exhibition at the British Council, Amman in 1977.
Joint exhibition with Bassam Nasr and Abdel Rahim Waked at the Jaffa Charitable Society, Jordan, 1990.
From the collection of Nuha Batshon, Gallery XIV, Jordan, 2013.
Retrospective exhibition, Cairo Amman Bank Gallery , Jordan, 2016.
Pearl Necklace Exhibition, Al-Daghlis Gallery for Culture and Arts, Amman, 2019.
Source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
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