Layan Shawabkeh

Late Palestinian artist Layan Shawabkeh portrays the hardships of occupation in her native Palestine through a series of bold and colourful paintings and drawings.

Born in 1986 in Jerusalem, Shawabkeh passed away in December 2009 following a battle with cancer. The young artist had already established herself as a valiant voice for the Palestinian cause, drawing on themes of violence, occupation and victimisation in her artwork. Poignant expressions of pain and suffering among Palestinians living under Israeli occupation radiate from her work. Here she depicts Palestinian women deprived of their individuality, sliced open, tormented and de-humanised.