Suzan Bushnaq

Kuwaiti artist Suzan was born and raised in Kuwait to Palestinian parents who were displaced from their homeland in 1948, Bushnaq grew up surrounded by the art of her late father, the pioneering Palestinian artist and sculptor, Mohammad Bushnaq, who established his own artistic identity in his adoptive country, Kuwait.  Suzan Bushnaq’s creative talents took form organically early on, in a home that knew the canvas, brush, and color well.  From there, her talents and her love for art took her to Russia, where she completed a Master’s degree in Fine Art. She returned to Kuwait in 1989, where she launched her art career.

A prominent artist who has carved a path of her own, Bushnaq is a prolific member of the Kuwait Art Association and a founding member of Latouche, an art society that pioneered the early Kuwaiti art movement.  Her work has been showcased in more than 55 group exhibitions as well as individual exhibitions, under the auspices of Kuwait National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters and other national art organizations, in addition to her own private art shows.  She is also a member of several international art associations, and on the international scene, her work has been exhibited extensively in festivals across the world including the Middle East, Sudan, Russia, East Asia, South Korea, UK, and at the United Nations in the US. A recipient of numerous art awards, Bushnaq was selected in 2014 to represent Kuwait, one of 40 participating nations, in the 22nd Seoul International Art Festival, Harmony.

Most recently, Bushnaq was invited to be one of eleven elite artists in the country to join the newly formed Reflection Group for Art and Culture. Comprised of an exclusive group of Kuwaiti artists, the group’s mission is to promote a more humane and caring art culture, locally as well as internationally, that reflects contemporary life in the global community.

In addition to being a professional artist, Bushnaq is the Director of Art Education in the Kuwait Ministry of Education. She also holds art workshops, lectures on art, and has been commissioned to create art for several book covers.

Bushnaq’s artistic style developed through the fusion of academic training with spontaneity, generating a unique prism through which she projects her creations. Traversing realism, expressionism and surrealism, she forms her own style that delves into the feminine figure, highlighting its power, vitality and beauty, and deploying colors with the skill of a master artist. 

“What I want from a painting,” Suzan Bushnaq states, “is for it to evoke our emotions through inspiring us, yet without confirmation or limitation... and I know my work is successful when the observer understands it in their own way, and according to their own thoughts and feelings. I like to leave them space, so they may live these incomplete inspirations, interacting with them and imagining what could be, so that they may complete them in their own mind. This way, the dialogue between us, painting, observer and painter, continues, with endless possibilities.”

“Why the Woman? I like to express her because I am one. My understanding of her is intimate.  When I search for myself, I find myself in my paintings.”