Born in Iraq in 1962, renowned portrait artist, Ismail Azzam, holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Fine Arts University in Baghdad.
Azzam started his art career as a lecturer at the Institute of Teachers in Mosul in 1988. He moved to Amman, Jordan in 1993 to serve as Director of the Ain Art Gallery there. In 1996, Azzam relocated to Doha where he was initially a resident painter at the Arab Museum of Modern Art and later at Qatar Museums. He subsequently served as Curator of the then future Orientalist Museum and currently served as a Director of the Amiri Diwan Museum Project. Additionally, he lectures at Qatar Museums and at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar.
Azzam is a highly regarded artist and best known for his mastery of a distinctive technique known as ‘reverse charcoal drawing’, whereby a canvas is first fully covered in charcoal. And then slowly etched away using an eraser to accentuate shades of light and dark, to create a portrait scene.