Pixels, wool, and faith: The multidisciplinary world of Iraqi artist Hussein Shikha

Hussein Shikha is a multidisciplinary Iraqi artist known for his textile art, interactive installations, experimental film and animation. Born in 1995 in Baghdad, he relocated to Antwerp, Belgium, in 2009, where he is currently based.

Hussein draws inspiration from ancient and contemporary Iraqi and Arab histories and memories. He engages with different symbologies, looking at tapestries and Mesopotamian artefacts, especially from Southern Iraq, to speculate on a new way in which this imagery could exist.

In his work, abstract and fantastical motifs immerse the viewer in ancient worlds and address contemporary Arab artistic creation through the lens of Islamic art.

In 2025, Hussein created They Who Saw Nothing But Beauty, a series of seven jacquard-woven wool tapestries of various dimensions depicting scenes from the historic battle of Karbala.

This body of work was developed during the artist's one-year residency at the Jan van Eyck Academie (NL), in collaboration with the TextielLab, the professional workshop studio of Tilburg's TextielMuseum.

For a Shia Muslim like Hussein, the battle of Karbala, during which Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was brutally killed by the army of a tyrannical caliph, is a reminder of the duty to confront contemporary injustices.

This body of work comments poignantly on the genocide and displacements in Gaza and many other places in the world where injustice and violence exist.

Multiple scenes from the Battle of Karbala are depicted in each tapestry. She Saw Nothing But Beauty [2025, 175 x 300 cm] is centred on the figure of Sayyida Zainab, sister of Imam Hussein and one of the survivors of her family's martyrdom. She is depicted in a court (the Darbar), surrounded by people.

As Hussein explained to The New Arab, her oppressors ridiculed her and asked how she experienced the death of her family. She replied only: "Ma ra'aytu illa Jameelah" [I saw nothing but beauty].

The beauty Sayyida Zainab saw existed beyond the tragic event. Her vision of the battle of Karbala and the martyrdom of her family reflected unwavering faith in the face of overwhelming agony and injustice: a faith which testified to the existence of ultimate justice and truth.

Veiling the sacred

"Creating this body of work was a challenge, though, because I had to represent religious figures that are iconic for Shia Muslims," Hussein told The New Arab.

"To honour their sanctity, I decided to veil their faces through the use of ornaments and embellishments," the artist explained.

Flowers, birds, Arabic calligraphy and various symmetrical Islamic patterns dissolve into abstraction around these figures, seeking beauty and calling for humility.

Hussein replaces the typical vibrant colours of traditional southern Iraqi carpets with a monochrome palette, adding intensity.

According to Hussein, the use of black and white is a means of focusing on the symbols, avoiding the distraction of different colours.

"Actually, in the Iraqi tradition of carpet-making, each symbol is associated with one specific colour," he adds. But another reason supports the choice of black and white: "black is the colour of mourning."

In Iraqi art, black was more broadly associated with grief and historical rupture. A symbolic, often traumatic use of black pigments and imagery to criticise the devastating impact of the oil industry emerged later, primarily from the 1990s onward.

Hussein, too, considers it in his work. "My own work engages with this later understanding — viewing black as material, atmosphere, and residue," he tells The New Arab. 

At the crossroads of art, design, and research

Hussein's practice is located at the intersection of visual art, design and research.

"At the beginning of my research, I was motivated mostly by curiosity; I found very little documented information on carpets from Southern Iraq, particularly those produced by Marsh Arabs," he shares with The New Arab.

"The March Arab communities have endured a long history of political oppression, displacement and environmental devastation, conditions that have seriously disrupted the transmission, documentation, and continuity of their material and visual culture," Hussein added. 

"Encountering this absence clarified my position as a researcher and artist working from within a diasporic context. Rather than attempting to reconstruct a lost tradition, my practice seeks to keep its visual languages and symbologies present — by carrying them forward, expanding their meanings, and recontextualising their legacy through contemporary artistic iteration and transformation."

Southern Iraqi carpets are woven by Marsh Arabs in the Mesopotamian marshes of Iraq, following textile traditions distinct from those of other regions in the Middle East.

Flowers, birds, human figures from Mesopotamian mythology, symbols, and geometric motifs are embroidered with wool yarn on a handwoven ground.

Hussein's family has connections to the region and the craft of carpet-making, which helped him build a solid understanding of the craft.

"My parents are originally from the South of Iraq, the area of Amarah and Basra City, which is connected to today's Iraqi Southern Marshes," he shares.

"My grandmother was familiar with the process of making yarn for carpets, and I remember she had a place where several of them were stored. One of the carpets was later given to my mother and remained in our Baghdad home," Hussein revealed. 

"After our departure, the house was pillaged, and the carpet is no longer in our possession. My mother often tells me to be grateful for having had this direct relationship with the carpet. And I am!”

'Always a dream of mine' 

In 2023, Hussein conceived Garden of Eden (175 x 300 cm), which could be regarded as his first black-and-white jacquard-woven cotton tapestry.

It was commissioned by Joachim Naudts, who at the time was the artistic coordinator of Extra City, an Antwerp-based art organisation, for the exhibition Carpetland: Critical Tapestries, held at Kunsthal Extra City, located in a former Dominican monastery. Thus, this work became part of the Periphery exhibition of Extra City, as a semi-permanent work.

Hussen's work bridges textile design, digital animation and video games. The Garden of Eden also functions as a digital installation, and the artist has considered creating a video game to share and archive endangered knowledge.

Hussein's artworks look beyond the purely aesthetic aspects of textiles and tapestries, posing critical questions about the perception and appreciation of a medium situated between art and craft.

These unique pieces also tell stories of displacement and the spatial representation of Arab identity in a European city.

"As an Iraqi-Belgian citizen, I reflect on how my work could reach other places," he said.

"Being in Europe and dealing with secular institutions, I negotiate space for these works and their own timeline. I am also negotiating the demonisation of the Arab and Muslim identity at this moment in time."

Hussein holds a Master's degree in visual arts from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium, and a Master of Research in Art and Design from the advanced Master's programme at Sint-Lucas Antwerpen.

He received the 2025 Pomona Art Fund grant for artists in Belgium, and his work was shown at Art Brussels in 2025.

Selections from Hussein Shikha's body of work, They Who Saw Nothing But Beauty, will be on display at the Design Doha Biennial, which opens on 12 April 2026. This will mark the first time Hussein's work enters the Middle East.

"This was always a dream of mine since immigrating to Belgium," he concluded. 

Elisa Pierandrei is an Italian journalist and author based in Milan. She writes and researches stories across art, literature, and the visual media. Elisa holds a master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the American University in Cairo (2002), after graduating in Arabic Language and Literature at Ca' Foscari University in Venice (1998)

Follow her on X: @ShotOfWhisky