Lebanese artist Shawki Youssef’s paintings, drawing and video installations take as their basis the human body, which, to the artist, represents an inscription tool that registers the discourses in which he lives. Youssef documents the processes by which conflicting discourses, arguments and ideologies dominate, manipulate, inform, deform and fragment the body. In his works, the flesh is indeed painfully distorted, speaking of the absence of love and the frustrations of the individual. This fragmentation of the body mirrors that of the city, a political, psychological, social and above all physical space where fear is engrained into minds.

A titular of both a fine arts diploma and a Master’s degree in intercultural mediation, Youssef is always concerned with the Lebanese socio-political sphere and the relationship between text and image. He therefore refuses to limit himself to drawing and painting; he also writes, produces videos and stages performances.

Youssef has been exhibiting since 2005 in group shows in Lebanon, Dubai, Canada and Germany. In Beirut, he exhibited in solo in 2005 and in 2011.