Habib Hajallie London, UK, b. 1995
Drawing on his Sierra Leonean and Lebanese heritage, Hajallie champions figures from communities conspicuously omitted from the history of British portraiture, confronting colonialist ideologies that continue to dictate who has the privilege to be seen.
By sourcing antique maps and sociological texts that speak of erased histories and British culture and adopting them as the foundation for his meticulously drawn portraits, Hajallie literally and metaphorically recontextualises the stories of Black figures. His deliberate choice of the everyday, black ballpoint pen becomes a political statement, celebrating Blackness in all its multiplicity and rejecting the traditional tools of the white, Western canon.
Hajallie works with portraiture in the broadest sense; celebrating pioneering British and Sierra Leonean cultural figures as well as cherished family members. He is perhaps at his most playful when working with his own portrait; assuming multiple identities that skewer the nuanced prejudice and microaggressions he experiences as a British man of dual heritage.
Previous exhibitions include a solo show Penned into History at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize; Saatchi Gallery and Bloomberg New Contemporaries, South London Gallery. Hajallie was included in the Forbes' 30 Under 30 List 2023.
His work has been acquired by Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK and Watts Gallery, Compton, UK.
