Shurooq Amin

Mixed-media interdisciplinary artist and an anglophone poet.

Shurooq Amin speaker, keynote speech, art paint
English

Shurooq Amin is a Kuwaiti mixed-media interdisciplinary artist and an Anglophone poet whose purpose is to instigate change in society.

Based in Kuwait but a citizen of the world Shurooq Amin is an activist, painter and poet who provokes positive modification and progress in that she asks governments and corporations around the world to address the need for change and deliver benefits to citizens and so remove poverty and social injustice.

As a keynote speaker she challenges audiences to engage with her thought provoking opinions that centre on the global need for constant change particularly on the issues of social reform, education and innovation to protect and improve the rights and conditions for societies around the world.

The removal of certain opinions and taboos that are restraining the development of societal change are a specific focus for her agenda and an important part of her role as an artist and social communicator.

As companies around the world acknowledge that pressures for social reform will impact on their business models and political strategies Shurooq Amin brings an awareness and dialogue that creates a bridge between business and social responsibility, as well as between East and West, as Amin
considers herself a hybrid of both cultures.

Shurooq’s poetry has been published into two books to date, in more than 40 literary journals across the globe, and has been anthologized in the Gathering the Tide: An Anthology of Arabian Gulf Poetry by Ithaca Publishers in association with the Virginia Commonwealth University of Qatar.

Her second volume of poetry “The Hanging of the Wind” is taught as part of the contemporary literature curriculum in universities in the Gulf.

She is the first Kuwaiti to be nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize in December 2007 in the USA.

On March 2012 her show It’s a Man’s World was shut down by Kuwaiti authorities and her work was banned in the country. In April 2013, Shurooq was awarded the title of Artist of the Year by the Arab Woman Awards, and has since become the first Kuwaiti woman to be auctioned at Christie’s auction house.

In October 2014, Shurooq was nominated for the 2014/2015 Sovereign Asian Art Prize by Art Radar. For 2015, amongst many other events, Shurooq will be a panel speaker on the BBC’s live Democracy Day discussions; she will present her 2015 series Apolocalypso Now, with Ayyam Gallery; and has also been chosen to exhibit her artwork at the Venice Biennale, May to November 2015.