Palestinian artist born in Nusairat refugee camp in Gaza, lives and works in Damascus

Zuhdie Al Adawi started making art while a political prisoner at Askalan- the infamous Israeli prison. His first paintings were on handkerchiefs, which were folded and smuggled out by relatives. A powerful emotional response to imprisonment and torture is made visible in his early works, and his first admirers were his fellow political prisoners. There is great force in his symbolic images and scenes of Palestinian resistance, which are collaged together to create thematic narratives of resistance and freedom.