Samah Shihadi

Conversation with Samah Shihadi

Samah Shihadi, 2022, Charcoal on paper, 70/70cm

I feel that identity is an open field, not an endpoint — something that is in constant motion. When I paint self-portraits, I am not searching only for an external representation, but also for the inner voices, the fears, the doubts, the moments of dissolution. I ask myself: Who am I when no one is looking? How do I feel when I am alone? Is the image I present to the world really “me,” or only a partial, blurred version shaped by my own expectations, those of others, and of the communities around me? And also: what happens when my identity resists itself, when the figure of “me” clashes with the figure of the “self” I want to become?

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Samah Shihadi, recipient of the 2018 Haim Shiff Prize for Figurative-Realistic Art, is among the contemporary generation of young Palestinian female artists and a unique voice in the local art scene. Working in hyperrealism, she explores identity, traditional society, and political realities, offering a realistic and feminist perspective on female identity. Shihadi holds an M.F.A. from the University of Haifa and a B.Ed. in Art from Oranim. She has exhibited internationally, with works in public and private collections including LACMA, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Fenix Museum