Khaled DAWWA
Khaled Dawwa (born 1985, Masyaf, Syria) is a Syrian sculptor living and working in France. A graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus, he develops a sculptural practice addressing political power, oppression, displacement, collective memory and human resilience.
His work is deeply informed by his experiences during the Syrian conflict, including imprisonment in 2013 and subsequent exile. His sculptures have been presented in galleries, cultural institutions and museums across Europe, including the Mucem, Louvre-Lens and Museum Beelden aan Zee.
Works
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Biography
1985 Born in Masyaf (also spelled Misyaf), near Hama, Syria.
2007 Graduates from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Damascus University, specialising in sculpture. His graduation project, L’Attente (Waiting), introduces themes of power and the individual that recur throughout his career.
2011 Participates in the establishment of the Al-Boustan artistic workshop in Damascus. His work increasingly responds to the Syrian uprising and political repression.
2013 Injured during shelling near his studio in Syria. Arrested in May and imprisoned for approximately 40 days. Following his release in June, he is forcibly conscripted into the Syrian army. He subsequently deserts and flees to Lebanon.
2013–2014 Lives clandestinely in Lebanon for approximately one year, continuing to create and share his work through Clay & Knife, an online artistic platform.
2014 Arrives in France in October as a political refugee, initially settling in Marseille and resuming his public artistic career.
2017 Undertakes an artistic residency in Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie, France.
2018 Begins creating the monumental installation Voici mon cœur, a sculptural representation of the destruction of Damascus.
2021 Presents Voici mon cœur at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris.
2022–2025 Voici mon cœur enters the collection of the Mucem, Marseille, through a donation by the Fondation Antoine de Galbert, supported by private patrons.
Exhibitions
2025 Voici mon cœur, Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, Netherlands
2025 Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machinery of Authoritarian Solidarity, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Thailand.
2024 Exils: Regards d’artistes, Louvre-Lens, France. Presentation of Voici mon cœur.
2024 Syria: Lights and Darkness, Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris, France.
2023 Tyrant Figures: 18 Bronze Sculptures, Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris, France
2023 Bronze: Think, Move, Sleep, Galerie Géraldine Banier, Paris, France.
2023 Cure3, Bonhams, London, United Kingdom.
2022 Debout ! (Le Roi des Trous), Jardin des Sculptures, Château de Bois-Guilbert, Normandy, France.
2022 Trône(s), Galerie Géraldine Banier, Paris, France.
2022 Thrones, Galerie Reichmanns, Ypres, Belgium.
2022 Deep Sleep, Galerie Charivari, Marseille, France.
2021 Voici mon cœur, Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France.
2021 Debout ! Le Roi des trous, Le Socle, Saint-Merry, Paris, France. Public sculpture installation.
2020 Les Passants, public commission, Centre d’art contemporain Chanot, Clamart, France.
2019 Où est la maison de mon ami ?, Maison des Arts de Malakoff, France.
2018 Uprooted, World Bank Group, Washington, D.C., USA.
2018 Les Vitrines de l’Atelier des artistes en exil, Palais-Royal, Paris, France.
2017 Debout !, series presented in connection with his residency and the Terralha Festival, Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie, France.
2017 Terralha, European Festival of Ceramic Arts, Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie, France.
2016 Biennale de Stonefield, Perreux, France.
2016 Les murs ne servent à rien, Fonderie Kugler, Geneva, Switzerland.
2015 Compressé, Galerie Europia, Paris, France.
2015 Compressé, Galerie Charivari, Marseille, France. His first solo exhibition.
Collections
Mucem, Marseille, France — Voici mon cœur (2018–2022), acquired through a donation from the Fondation Antoine de Galbert with the support of several patrons.
Collection Claude & France Lemand / Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris — Several works by Khaled Dawwa are represented in the collection.