Shadi Al-Atallah

Shadi Al-Atallah (born 1994, Saudi Arabia) is a London-based artist whose work combines drawing and painting to explore the human body in moments of transformation, connection and vulnerability. His pieces depict psycho-sexual conflict between two or more figures embroiled in intimate entanglements. Bodies are often fragmented or blurred, grappling with each other and the space around them.
Al-Atallah’s recent work explores holes as sites of transformation. From black holes and the underworld to bodily orifices and wounds, he examines how voids may dissolve boundaries and shift identities. Like his earlier investigations of wrestling, Al-Atallah uses mythology and religion as lenses to explore masculinity, power and desire. His figures often inhabit liminal spaces - undefined domestic environments where the distinction between inside and outside has been transgressed.
Navigating the physical and spiritual, Al-Atallah uses the body as a site for connection, resistance, and change. His work has been exhibited at Goldsmiths CCA (UK), The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (US), and Palazzo Tiepolo Passi (Italy).