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Asim Abu Shakra, Israeli, 1961-1990 Assam Abu Shakra was born in Umm el-Fahm. His brother was Sheikh Raid Salah. Several members of the family are artists. He attended a Jewish high school in Afula. In 1981, he moved to Tel Aviv-Yafo and studied at the Kalisher Art School, washing dishes to pay his bills. In his second year of studies, he lived and painted in a room at the school, living on scholarships awarded by the school.

After graduating in 1986, he worked for a printing company, eventually becoming a teaching assistant and a drawing instructor at Kalisher. In 1987, he met Eitan Hillel, a curator and gallery owner, who organized showings of his work. With Hillel's help, he began to work at a studio on Nahmani Street in Tel Aviv-Yafo. In 1987, he was diagnosed with cancer, to which he succumbed in 1990. Abu Shakra's palette is dominated by different shades of ochre. Most of his work features a central image set against a decorative background. Aside from numerous self-portraits, a recurrent motif in his work is the sabra cactus, depicted as a domesticated house-plant symbolizing personal and national identity.

Education

1982-1986 Kalisher School, Tel Aviv.

Teaching

1986, Kalisher School of Art, Tel Aviv, teaching assistant of Zvi Ben Dov,
1987 Kalisher School of Art, Tel Aviv, Drawing

Awards And Prizes

1983-84, Kalisher School of Art Tel Aviv, Scholarship
1989 The America-Israel Cultural Foundation, Sharett Fund Scholarship
The Margoshilsky School of Art, Scholarship, The Tel Aviv School of Art, Tel Aviv-Yaffo