Walaa Dakak was born in 1978 in Damascus, Syria. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Damascus and later studied Contemporary Art and New Media at the Université Paris. His minimalist yet cautious figures, marked by their vague – at times overlapping – silhouettes and featureless faces except for wide-set eyes that stare out anxiously and suspiciously at the viewer, attest to the psychological depth captured in his works. Using bold primary colors that act as a background to his black and white figures – oftentimes using only monochromatic tones – Dakak’s simple yet effective painterly style is easily distinguishable. His installation work Paranoia Eye and I was included in the exhibition Syrie: Cris – Action (2014) at the Institute du Monde Arabe, He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Paris in Art and Sciences focusing on aesthetic art.
