Habib Hajallie

My practice uses portraiture to question who is seen or overlooked, as well as whose histories are remembered and valued. I work in ballpoint pen on antique texts and maps, placing faces and bodies onto surfaces already marked by history, ideology and authority. My drawings move between the personal and the political, exploring identity, representation and belonging alongside more intimate experiences of grief, mental health and vulnerability. Across the work, I am interested in how a portrait can speak to both the world around a person and the private realities we live with.

A central part of my work is addressing historic omissions within traditional British portraiture. I often depict figures from ethnically diverse backgrounds, questioning who has been granted visibility within cultural memory and who has been excluded. Born in Southeast London and informed by my Sierra Leonean-Lebanese heritage, my work considers what it means to navigate Britishness through more than one cultural lens.

My drawings often move between realism and the quasi-surreal. Some works engage with colonial histories, heritage and the visibility of marginalised figures, while others turn inward towards grief, anxiety, vulnerability and the attempt to r...

2014-2017 Loughborough University: Fine Art BA

30 April - 23 May 2026, Habib Hajallie: Black & Blue, Larkin Durey, London

8 - 11 May 2025, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, The Halo, New York City, US

11 - 27 July 2025, Her Name is Phoenix, Deptford X, Art Hub, London

6-10 July 2021, Society of Graphic Fine Art 99th Annual Exhibition - Mall Galleries, London

7 July-20 September 2021, Figurative Art Now - online exhibition

19-29 May 2021, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 209th Exhibition - Mall Galleries, London

17 April-5 June 2021, RCA Annual Exhibition 2021 - Royal Cambrian Academy of Art, Conwy, Wales

15-24 April 2021, Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition - Mall Galleries, London

​1 October 2020 - 28 February 2021, Wells Art Contemporary 2020 - Wells Cathedral, Somerset

1 - 12 September 2020, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 208th Exhibition - Mall Galleries, London

19 - 29 February 2020, Royal Society of British Artists 303rd Annual Exhibition - Mall galleries, London

14 February – 1 November 2020, MK Calling 2020 – MK Gallery, Milton Keynes

18 January- 5 April, Embracing Our Differences 2020 – Sarasota Park, Florida, USA

14 -24 November 2019, ING Discerning Eye Drawing Bursary 2019 – Mall Galleries, London

25 Oct...