Shadi Al-Atallah (b. 1994, Saudi Arabia) is a London-based artist whose work combines drawing and painting to explore the human body in moments of transformation, connection and vulnerability. His pieces depict psycho-sexual conflict between two or more figures embroiled in intimate entanglements. Bodies are often fragmented or blurred, grappling with each other and the space around them. Al-Atallah’s recent work explores holes as sites of transformation. From black holes and the underworld to bodily orifices and wounds, he examines how voids may dissolve boundaries and shift identities. Like his earlier investigations of wrestling, Al-Atallah uses mythology and religion as lenses to explore masculinity, power and desire. His figures often inhabit liminal spaces - undefined domestic environments where the distinction between inside and outside has been transgressed. Navigating the physical and spiritual, Al-Atallah uses the body as a site for connection, resistance, and change.
Solo exhibitions include Hole, Niru Ratnam, London, UK (2025); Rapture, Steve Turner, Los Angeles, (2023); Fistfight, Guts Gallery, London, UK (2023); Waters That Never Quench, Steve Turner, Los Angeles, USA (2022); I Lost the Title On the Plane, Guts Gallery, London, UK(2021); Fuck I’m Stuck, J Hammond Projects, London, UK(2019); Roadblocks, Cob Gallery, London, UK (2018).
Group exhibitions include All About Eve, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2025); Gazing Bodies, CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden (2024); Eighteen Painters, Andrew Kreps, New York (2014); London Art Fair, Guts Gallery, London (2024); Ultraviolet, KKweer Art, London(2014); I'm Not Afraid Of Ghosts, Palazzo Tiepolo Passi, Italy (2024); Saints and Sinners, Guts Gallery, London (2023); Unruly Bodies, Goldsmiths CCA, London (2023); Dreaming of Home, The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York,USA (2023); Somatic Markings, Kasmin Gallery, New York, USA (2022); Figuring, Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2022); Them, Juxtapoz Magazine x Perrotin, Hong Kong (2022); And this Skin of Mine, To Live Again a Second Time, Guts Gallery,London (2022); What Now, PM/AM, London (2022); Queer Circle, Victoria Miro x Out Collective,London (2021); Reality Check, Guts Gallery, London (2021); A New Art World, Guts Gallery, London (2021); Introducing, Guts Gallery at The Shop, Sadie Coles HQ, London(2021); Begin Again, Guts Gallery, London (2020); Paintings on, and, with paper, Cob Gallery, London (2020); When Shit Hits the Fan, Guts Gallery, London (2020); NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT, Public Gallery, London (2020); Alter Ego, Unit London, London (2020); Without a Painter, The Fitzrovia Gallery, London (2020); The Head The Hand, Blank Projects, Cape Town, South Africa (2019); Sharks, Swim Gallery, San Francisco, US (2019); Absinthe, Collectivending, Spit and Sawdsut, London (2019); AFROPUNK x 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning Present: PeopleArt Resistance, London (2018); LDN WMN, Tate Collective, public commission, London (2018); BBZ BLK BK, Copeland Gallery, London (2018).