Tarek Shabout

Tarek Shabout, born in Baghdad in 1971, is a contemporary ceramic artist based in Brussels, Belgium. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from 1989 and graduated from the Académie des Beaux-Arts Jean-Jacques Gailliard in 2025 as a ceramicist.
He uses clay as the foundational material in his work and relies on it to shape his sculptures. In his artistic practice, Shabout seeks to explore the tension inherent in the human experience between reason and the concept of the sacred, attempting through his work to express this complex duality visually.
Shabout often begins with simple moments from everyday life, reframing them within new visual and conceptual contexts. He uses this approach as a way to address existential questions such as humanity and chaos, impermanence, identity, and the narrative of memory. His works are distinguished by his ability to give inanimate objects a narrative dimension, transforming them into elements that not only deceive the eye but also invite contemplation on the passage of time and the evolution of human experience.
In his latest series, the artist explores the subject of paper and its transformations, treating it as a medium that oscillates between destruction and renewal. He draws inspiration from the clay tablets of Mesopotamian civilizations, using them as a metaphor for the transformation of material into text, while also reflecting on the contemporary shift toward the digital world.
Tarek Shabout exhibits his work through representation by the Pedrami Gallery in Antwerp. He has also participated in other exhibitions in both Antwerp and Brussels, including one at the Belgian Senate. His works can also be seen at Galila’s P.O.C., a private art space in Brussels, and they are part of various private art collections both nationally and internationally. He has taken part in numerous events and art exhibitions, including the Brussels Art Fairs, the Belgian Embassy in The Hague, the Netherlands.

TAREK SHABOUT

Place of birth: Iraq (1971)

1992 – 1998 Studied graphic design at the University of fine art Baghdad.
2017- Present Académie des Beaux-Arts Jean-Jacques Gailliard Bruxelle.

June 2022 (Mattergy) ABY de Saint-Gilles.

February 2021 Pedrami Gallery, (sentiment or testament?).

June 2021 Pedrami Gallery, (Fertile crescent!).

2016 “Fragile” in Cultuurcentrum De Steiger in menennen.

2013 Participation “Baghdad capital of Arab culture”, European Parliament.

2011 Participation in a joint exhibition in the city of Antwerpen at Hallmmermrum “Day in memory of the Belgian warrior”.

2010 Solo exhibition at the SteM Zwijgershoek Sint-Niklaas. “symbols of the Babylonian old city walls”.

2009 Pro Patria, A joint exhibition in the city of Antwerp.

2008 “Muren en symbolen”. Joint exhibition “codes of old walls”. Wereld Cultuurcentrum Zuiderpershuis, Antwerpen.

2008 Fort Europa A joint exhibition with artist Mark Swysen’s Oostende.

2008 A joint exhibition Kultour08 te Lebekke.

2007 Arnoevoo. Tarek Abed got under ARNOEVOO

2007 (THIRD PRICE) for the two painting named (desert 91) of the city Bredene.

2007 A group of artists with more than 200 nationalities joint exhibition with NICC.

2007 Kunstarm A joint exhibition in the city of Antwerp.

2007 The third Prize of committee jury in a joint exhibition in the coastal city of Bredene for the painting called “Desert 91”.