Tammam Azzam

Galerie Kornfeld is delighted to present, for the first time, works by Syrian artist Tammam Azzam. On display are new collages made from up to 50,000 pieces of hand-painted paper shreds.

Tammam Azzam first gained attention in 2013 when he was forced to leave his studio in Syria and began making digital photomontages in his new home in Dubai. These works take an unromantic look at the conflict within art making in the face of war and violence, directly addressing the ongoing conflict in his home country. One of these works shows an image of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss superimposed on a bombed Syrian building. The work went viral on social media and remains among the artist’s best-known images.

Following these experiences, Tammam Azzam found his way back to painting, though in a different register. With Storeys, a series of monumental acrylic paintings depicting the magnitude of devastation in his home country through expressionist compositions of destroyed cityscapes, the artist chronicles the current state of Syria in a cathartic exercise of reconstruction—storey by storey.

His painterly work subsequently evolved toward three-dimensional objects. In addition to acrylic paintings, the series Iron Laundry features both pictorial and sculptural objects made of iron, as well as large-format paper collages created with a technique developed by the artist himself. This technique combines painting and collage in a novel way. In these large-scale paper collages, up to tens of thousands of hand-painted paper fragments are arranged in multiple layers, forming visually powerful compositions.

From a distance, these works appear painterly. From close up, however, they reveal affinities with mosaics—a multitude of small coloured elements combining into a single image. At the same time, their three-dimensionality becomes apparent, emphasizing the object-like nature of the works. Through the tactile interaction of surface and form, these collages introduce a new physical dimension to the medium of painting.

Most paper collages are mounted on canvas. In those works that are not mounted but presented as three-dimensional objects in space, the fragility of the paper and the tenderness of the reverse side—revealing an entirely different image from the front—are further intensified.

The tension created by the juxtaposition of painterly yet corporeal paper collages, the physical handling of acrylic paint, and dense architectural abstraction gives the impression of confronting a site of oppressive chaos. Art critic Ralf Hanselle observes:

“Ultimately, it is this technique of reappropriation and decontextualization, of disintegration and reintegration, which permeates almost the entire repertoire of Tammam Azzam. Across ever-new media, the 38-year-old Syrian is today testing a reality that has been thrown out of balance.”

Comparisons with the Dadaists—who over one hundred years ago used collage as a response to the horrors of the First World War—are evident. Yet, as Swiss curator Heinz Stahlhut notes, Azzam’s works captivate through “the contrast between aesthetic attraction and immediate terror,” since “the layered surfaces of his collages realistically reproduce the ruptured architecture of bombed buildings while remaining works of highly sensitive painting.”

Tammam Azzam’s works are based on photographs of mostly destroyed architecture and cities, freely transformed into pictorial compositions that often appear abstract. Although motifs may once have been identifiable, their abstraction removes individual specificity in favor of universality. The works thus speak not only of Syria, but of the wounds and destruction caused by war in general—both contemporary and historical.

Through the visual power of his abstractions, Azzam creates a space of identification for viewers who have not experienced war firsthand: a singular universality that remains tied to Syria while expressing a shared global horror. Azzam describes his artistic process as both physical and emotional. Despite his belief that “bullets are currently more powerful than art,” he remains convinced that art can help rebuild the future. As Heinz Stahlhut remarks, Azzam’s focus lies not on the critical aspect of collage, but on its constructive synthesis.

 Tammam Azzam holds a degree in painting from the University of Damascus. After first meeting in 2001, he was closely associated with Syrian-born Berlin artist Marwan Kassab-Bashi until the latter’s death in 2016. Since 2016, Azzam has been a fellow at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg, Institute for Advanced Study, in Delmenhorst. He has recently relocated with his family to Berlin.

His works have been exhibited widely in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, including at Ayyam Gallery in Dubai, Art Dubai, Untitled Miami, and Haines Gallery in San Francisco, which also presented him successfully at the Armory Show 2018 in New York. His works are held in major institutional collections such as the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah, the Atassi Foundation, and the For-Site Foundation in San Francisco, for which he has developed independent projects.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue (approx. 56 pages) with essays by Ralf Hanselle and Heinz Stahlhut, featuring texts in English and German as well as colour reproductions of all exhibited works.