Karma Shawa

Karma Shawa is a fine artist born and raised in Jordan. She holds a Bsc in International Relations from the London School of Economics (2005) and an MA in Arts Management and Cultural Policy from UCD (2010). Being exposed to the provocative work of her aunt Laila Shawa from a young age, she pursued art at school and won the Khalil Al Talhouni Award for Islamic Art. While her professional career began in the public & non-profit sector in Jordan, she continued to nurture her passion for art where she was classically trained by renowned Palestinian artist Aziz Amoura. During that time, she participated in a number of group exhibitions in Jordan and won the Kulacom “Jordan’s Favorite Artist” award in 2009. 

After moving to Ireland and obtaining her MA in 2010, Karma immersed herself in Dublin’s art scene where she interned in the exhibitions/curatorial departments of the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Royal Hibernian Academy while sharing a studio space with a sculptor to continue painting. She later worked as a part-time Art and Educational Facilitator at the Chester Beatty Library and managed the Front of House and Box Office of a local arts theatre in Ireland. In 2015, she was keen on experiencing the creative side of the corporate world, so she became an Account Executive at Publicis and later joined the team at Kantar Media as a Media Analyst. 

After having her first baby and moving to NYC in 2017, Karma decided to dedicate her time fully to painting and developing her own aesthetic and technique. Working mainly in oil and watercolours, her work focuses predominantly on portraits and the human figure, combining abstract elements with figurative details. The subjects in her paintings are sometimes imagined, but mostly, they are people close to her. While many elements are true to reality and show traditional processes, some distortions aim to evoke a sense of movement and exaggerate the emotional significance of the moments captured.

Karma’s painting style draws inspiration from a number of art movements particularly western academic classical realist paintings of Bouguereau, Velázquez and Caravaggio. She is also heavily influenced by impressionist artists Joaquin Sorolla and Renoir as well as contemporary figurative artists Lucian Freud and Jenny Saville.