Tammam Azzam
Tammam Azzam (b. 1980) is a Syrian artist who works with hybrid forms of painting by applying different media. Azzam studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus and focused on oil painting. He uses unusual materials in his work, such as rope, clothespins and other objects to create depth, texture and space. He creates a striking balance between the normal objects and the width of the visual planes, despite the clearly present visual tension.
After the outbreak of violence in Syria, Azzam focused on digital media to create visual compositions about these conflicts that resonate with the viewer. Azzam’s diffuse artworks are based on his interest in interventionist methods of digital photography and street art as a means of protest that cannot be easily repressed. In 2013, Azzam’s work Freedom Graffiti made international press. Recently Azzam has been working on monumental artworks that represented the magnitude of the war in his homeland. To do so, he used expressionistic images of destroyed buildings and infrastructure.
Tammam Azzam was a participating artist in the Framer Framed exhibition Crisis of History #2: Fight History, on show between 8 February to 8 March 2015, curated by Robert Kluijver. On 15 February 2015, he gave an Artist Talk with Shadi Alzaqzouq, and a guided tour of the exhibition.
Recently, Azzam has returned to painting and received an artist fellowship at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study in Delmonhost in 2016. He currently lives and works in Dubai.
Exhibitions
