Mohannad Orabi (b. 1977, Damascus, Syria) is a Syrian contemporary artist whose expressive figurative practice explores identity, memory, childhood, displacement, and the emotional dimensions of human experience. Currently living and working between Dubai and Canada, Orabi has developed a distinctive visual language shaped by an enduring interest in spontaneity, the liberation of form and colour, and the intuitive processes associated with childhood.
The visual language of children’s drawings has been particularly significant to his practice. Their immediacy and freedom from established conventions inform his approach to figuration, allowing him to construct portraits that appear instinctive while carrying considerable psychological depth. Working across painting, collage, and mixed media, Orabi creates figures whose exaggerated features and direct presence move between vulnerability and resilience, intimacy and collective experience.
Following his displacement from Syria, questions of exile and collective memory became increasingly present within his work. Personal narratives began to intersect with the broader experience of displacement, expanding his investigation of identity beyond the individual to consider how memory, belonging, and human relationships are transformed by separation and changing geographies. While rooted in specific experiences, his figures resist being confined to a single place or political narrative, foregrounding instead the human experiences that persist across borders.
Orabi graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 2000 and received First Prize at the National Young Syrian Artists’ Exhibition in 2006. In 2014, Foreign Policy magazine included him among its 100 Global Thinkers in connection with his participation in APEX: Syria—Generations, presented in Beirut, Dubai, and London. His solo exhibitions include presentations at Ishtar Gallery in Damascus (2004–2006), Zara Gallery in Amman (2007), Ayyam Gallery in Damascus (2008), Dubai (2009 and 2012), and Jeddah (2013). His work has subsequently been presented across numerous international cities.
Alongside his studio practice, Orabi maintains a commitment to arts education and community engagement. In the UAE, he has developed inclusive creative programs for children, emerging artists, and diverse communities, extending his artistic concerns with childhood, expression, and human connection into an educational and social context.
Across these interconnected areas of practice, Orabi approaches art as a space for both personal and collective reflection. His work brings together the immediacy of childhood expression with the complexities of memory and displacement, using the human figure to articulate experiences of vulnerability, resilience, and belonging that extend beyond geographical and political boundaries.
