Ahmad Tallaa Syrian, b. 1994

  • biography
    Ahmad Tallaa (b. 1994, Damascus, Syria; lives and works in Sharjah, UAE) is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, sculpture,...

    Ahmad Tallaa (b. 1994, Damascus, Syria; lives and works in Sharjah, UAE) is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, sculpture, printmaking, handmade paper, and material fabrication. He studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Damascus (2012–2017), and received the Spring Annual Exhibition Award from the Syrian Ministry of Culture for Best Artwork in both 2017 and 2019.

     

    Tallaa's practice is rooted in the physical act of making — he fabricates many of his own tools and materials, treating the studio process as a form of inquiry rather than production. His works bear visible evidence of this: layered surfaces eroded and rebuilt, forms that hover between emergence and disappearance, compositions shaped by pressure, time, and material resistance. He approaches each work not with a predetermined image in mind, but through sustained observation — allowing forms to surface from the material itself.

     

    Central to his work is the experience of living under the shadow of conflict. The instability, displacement, and sensory texture of wartime Damascus have left a deep imprint on his visual language: surfaces that recall rubble and ruin, figures that dissolve before they can fully cohere, marks that speak of both presence and erasure.

     

    This sensibility extends beyond his visual practice. Tallaa also crafts musical instruments by hand, among them the ney, a traditional reed flute, and plays both ney and oud. For him, music and visual art share the same impulse: a need for expression that no single medium can fully contain.

     

     
  • Works
  • Exhibitions
  • Press
  • CV

    EDUCATION


    2012–2017 

    BFA in Visual Arts, Damascus University 

     

    SOLO EXHIBITIONS


    2024 

    Marsami art Gallery | Riyadh, 2024 

     

    GROUP EXHIBITIONS


     2026 

    DÉJA VU | Firetti contemporary, concrete.alserkal avenue. Dubai, UAE 

    2025 

    The Unseen Presence | Firetti contemporary. Dubai, UAE

    2023

    Foundry | Dubai, UAE 

    2021 

    "Paper... A Tribute to Marwan Kassab” Exhibition | Kalimat Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey 

    2020 

    A4 Exhibition | National Center for Visual Arts, Damascus, Syria

    2019

    Qazah Gallery | Damascus, Syria 

    2017 

    Tribute to the Spirit of Artists Marwan Kassab Bachi, Nazir Labaa, and Nazir Ismail | Damascus, Syria 

    2016 

    National Center for Visual Arts | Damascus, Syria 

     

    ART FAIRS


    2022 

    Contemporary Art Fair | Granada, Spain 

    2021 

    Istanbul Art Fair | Kalimat Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey 

    2018 

    Beirut Art Week | Beirut, Lebanon

     

    WORKSHOPS


    2016 

    Book Art Workshop with Artist Nizar Sabour | Damascus, Syria