Karma Shawa

Karma Shawa is a contemporary visual artist whose painting style draws inspiration from a number of art movements, particularly Western academic classical realist paintings of Bouguereau and Rubens. Impressionist artists Joaquin Sorolla and Renoir, as well as contemporary figurative artists including Lucian Freud and Jenny Saville, also influence her work.

Born and raised in Jordan to a Lebanese mother and Palestinian father, it was her aunt Laila Shawa’s provocative and revolutionary artworks and long summers spent in Gaza at her grandfather’s home as a child that led her to pursue painting.

She holds a BSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and an MA in Arts Management and Cultural Policy from UCD. While her professional career began in the public & non-profit sector in Jordan, followed by a career change that landed her positions in media and advertising in Ireland, she nurtured her passion for art through years of training in classical painting and drawing with artist Aziz Amoura in his atelier.

Karma has shown her work in a number of group exhibits in galleries and art fairs in Ireland, the UK and Jordan over the past decade.