Ward Alkhalaf

“untitled” – Oil on Paper

Syria

“My current research focuses on illustration and works on paper. Research that spontaneously started with my recent involvement in book illustration and layout design. I aim at understanding the paper’s full potential and how to push the way it can be perceived while using different techniques and mediums that embrace the surface rather than destroying it. My focus is now on Monotype, a technique that is usually looked down at or ignored. I try to present a different argument on that matter and offer it as an illustration medium.  “

Born in Damascus, 1995, Ward Alkhalaf is an illustrator and a designer with a focus on book illustration, art direction, and fashion design. He started with English Literature Studies in 2013, but eventually dropped out and chose to teach himself drawing instead. In 2018, Alkhalaf, moved to Beirut with a scholarship to study fashion design at Creative Space Beirut but was also expelled before finishing. Afterward, he worked on a couple of product design projects and clothing lines before starting to learn about editorial art through working for “Plan Bey” a Beiruti, artistic publishing house. Alkhalaf is currently collaborating with The Library of Arabic Literature at NYU Abu Dhabi as an illustrator/art director for a book series designed to introduce medieval genres of Arabic literature to young readers. Alongside that, He is developing his artistic expression and mediums to translate his inspiration into a full body of work that can contribute to Syrian art and the way it is viewed globally.

For more information about the artist, check out: ward95kh@gmail.com