Faisal Samra

The first title of the Skira Contemporary Arab Artists series, directed by Brahim Alaoui, previous director of the Museum of the Institute of the Arab World in Paris.

Bahraini-born Saudi national Faisal Samra graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He worked as an art and graphic design consultant for the Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris), and later as a stage designer for Saudi television.

In 2004, he taught in the Fine Arts department of Amman University in Jordan and obtained his first artist residency in Paris, at the Cite International des Arts, in 2005, which he continues to be a part of today.

Faisal Samra has taken part in numerous group shows, including Word Into Art at the British Museum (London and Dubai), Languages of the Desert: Contemporary Arab Art from the Gulf States (Abu Dhabi, Paris, and Kunstmuseum, Bonn), and Traversée (Paris, Cairo, Rabat).

He has had solo exhibitions in Middle-Eastern and European institutions alike, and is in the collections of The British Museum (London), National Museum (Mexico City), Modern Art Museum (Cairo), Enrico Navarra (Paris), Saeb Eigner (London), and Sheikha Paula Al Sabah (Kuwait), among others.