Sami Mohammad

Sami Mohammad Ahmed Saleh (born October 1, 1943) is a Kuwaiti sculptor and artist.

He is most known for his bronze sculptures.

Most of his artwork deals with the ideas of freedom, oppression, genocide and suffering.

Mohammad was born in Kuwait on October 1, 1943.

His father was a tailor.

As a child, he liked playing with clay and made forms that looked like birds and animals and sold them to his friends.

When he was a student at Sabaah School, he helped in creating statues for a school project for commemorating the battle of Port Said and Port Fouad.

At the inauguration of the display, he was awarded first prize by Sheikh Abdullah Al Jaber Al Sabah, the General Director of education department.

When Mohammad was of 20 years, he left the school to start working at the Ministry of Interior.

At the same time, The Free Atelier was formed, that provided art material and tutoring free of charge to the students.

The Ministry of Education, which officially administers the Atelier as one of its institutional units, granted him a lifelong stipend.

As a stipendiary he acquired studio space at The Free Atelier.

He joined the Atelier and went to the Atelier regularly.

During those years, he read avidly about the works of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which influenced the early works in his career.

In 1966, he received a government scholarship to Egypt to study at the College of Fine Arts in Cairo, a college of fine arts and completed his degree in 1970.

In 1967, he co-founded the Kuwaiti Society of Formative Artists.

In 1971, he was commissioned to make a statue of Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah.

He is most known for his Box series, Sabra and Chantila, Hunger and Mother.

Both works were references produced for unique pieces produced by the artist in previous commissions in 1971 and 1988 respectively.

The subject of most of Mohammad's work has been human and Arab revolution.

In the beginning of his career, he was involved in making life-size sculptures.

In 1973, Mohammad got a scholarship for a course of study in the USA to study at the College of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

He spent his first year at the Vermont college to improve his English language.

Following the course at Vermont, instead of joining College of Fine Arts, he went to Johnson Institute for artists in Princeton.

It was at this institute that he started working with bronze casting and other mediums and techniques.

Before leaving for the USA to study further, The Kuwaiti University deputized him as a visiting artist to teach tutorials in visual arts.

While Mohammad was in the USA, he start working on his first major collection called Curves.

After completing his education, he returned to Kuwait in 1976.

On his return, he started working on Before birth, "After birth" and "Motherhood".

In 1978, he was selected to represent Kuwait at the Kuwaiti Artists Exhibition in Paris and later represented Kuwait at the Tenth International Sculpture conference held in Toronto.

Upon returning from the conference, he began work on his Box series and subsequently started focusing on mankind and humans as the subject of his sculptures and arts.

Titled "National Works" and curated by Ala Younis, the pavilion's show featured a bronze bust of Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, a fiberglass copy of the extended arm of Sheikh Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah (1989), in addition to series of drawings and photographs excavated from the Mohammad's studio.

He held his first travelling exhibition in 1994, which included both paintings and sculptures.

The exhibition opened in Sharjah, organized by Department of Culture and Information, Directorate of Arts, then moved to Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Italy and participated in Bodova International Biennial on sculpture.

He has written a book about his work and career, entitled The Art of Sami Mohammad, which was published in 1995.

Mohammad closed his studio at The Free Atelier in 1999.

The National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters commissioned him to design the State of Kuwait Merit Award Trophy and was later commissioned to design and execute the golden medal and trophy of The National Achievement Award.

In the early 2000s, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Sharjah dedicated a separate wing for his artworks which are exhibited on long-term basis.

Mohammad's work was presented at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, which was the first time Kuwait participated in the event.

Mohammad's work was presented at 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, the first time that Kuwait participated in the event.