Wissam al-Jazairy is a young artist who was born in Midan, Damascus in 1990. He began his study of graphic design at the University of New Bulgaria in 2008, and graduated in 2011, which is when his journey with the Syrian uprising started.
A rose crushed under the boots of a soldier, but its bright colors and beauty hadn’t worn off, a hazy face of the artist Keffah Deeb in solidarity with her arrest, another painting of Youssef Abdelki. A scream representing the agonzing pain of the long road to freedom. A chair amid the destruction saying “we will stay here”, these and more are the designs of Jazairy who uses digital painting software, a modern form of art, combining hope, optimism, sarcasm and challenge, to tell the story of the Syrian uprising through his ideas and colors.
“The revolution pushed me to start painting” the artist says to Syria Untold, “After Syrian security forces stormed Daraa’s Omari Mosque in April 2011, my paintings and designs started revolving around the revolution, because it’s our only hope, now we dare to dream of a better, brighter future”.
The paintings of al-Jazairy reflect the story of an artists who merged into the pain of his people, and constantly tries to represent the oppressed, marginalized and detainees, so their voices can be heard. Consequently, he participated in several exhibitions in America, Egypt, Britain and Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Kuwait, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Switzerland to support the peaceful democratic movement in Syria. while in Syria, a number of his works have been transformed into graffiti, sprayed by Syrians onto the walls of their cities, including the city of Saraqeb, Idlib.
In the midst of war, Wissam never forgot about hope and love. In one painting, love symbols are flying out of the houses of the city, it’s like the souls of lovers are defying air raids and missiles. In another painting and in response to the cover of The Economist, which portrayed the name of Syria colored black while fading and demolishing gradually by self-destruction, the young artist completed the picture by adding Syrians rebuilding their homeland’s name with new shiny colors.
So whether it’s a flower against bullets, dancing against tanks or love against death, the artist’s paintings symbolize a relentless attempt to find hope in the darkest, gloomiest places.
“I dream of a free, independent and democratic Syria, where citizenship and justice are the basis of governance, and peace is the spoken language”.
Wissam al-Jazairy’s official Facebook page
