Samah Shihadi, recipient of the 2018 Haim Shiff Prize for Figurative-Realistic Art, is among the modern generation of young female Palestinian artists and one of the unique voices in the local field of art. Through her chosen media, hyperrealism, she scrutinises issues pertaining to identity, her native traditional society and her political reality. In her work, Shihadi offers realistic insight and a feminist stance which address female identity in both Arab culture and the world at large. Her delicate drawings, made with great precision touch on topics central to contemporary art, and offer a pronouncement and visual report that fluctuates between the internal, personal, social and cultural. Her drawings, created in a slow, meticulous, and prolonged work process, also evoke a sense of urgency and immediacy regarding subjects in the here and now: the status of women in society, tradition and religious belief versus social and political reality, and local landscapes charged with history.
Shihadi has an M.F.A. from the University of Haifa, and a B.ED. in art from Oranim Academic College of Education. A multiple award winner, Shihadi has exhibited extensively internationally and her work has been collected by several institutions including LACMA.