Alia Shawkat | puer prima

Working with canvas laid on the floor, Shawkat begins each composition through gesture and movement, using charcoal to trace forms that emerge from her subconscious, fragments from dreams, or images that return in daily life. Influenced by surrealist artists such as Leonora Carrington and Camille Henrot, her works balance emotional immediacy with formal precision. Themes of sexual objectification, humor, motherhood, and unfulfilled desire unfold through both intimate sketches and complex, textural surfaces.

Shawkat's father was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and her mother is of Irish and Sicilian descent. Raised in America within a culturally Arab household, her work often reinterprets her familial history and identity. Pieces such as lost children and Tahrir Square reflect on the ongoing conflicts across the Middle East, spanning from Gaza to Iraq, while other works pay homage to family and friends through intimate portraiture.