Spotlight.
Shatha Altowai
INTRODUCTION
Shatha Altowai is a Yemeni visual artist based in Edinburgh. Through painting, printmaking and interdisciplinary projects, she explores identity, displacement, women’s lives and the ways people can be reduced by conflict or public narratives. She began her public artistic practice in Yemen in 2014 and relocated to Scotland in 2020 through the IIE Artist Protection Fund, hosted by IASH at the University of Edinburgh. Her work has been presented in Scotland and internationally across exhibitions, theatre, music and cultural events. She is currently completing an MSc in Creative Industries at the University of Edinburgh and received the Arab Personality of the Year Award in 2025.
INTERVIEW
How did you get into your creative practice? What initially inspired you?
My first memory of art is from when I was six. I drew my parents, siblings and a sun with coloured pencils. My aunt reacted as though I had made something remarkable. I thought everyone could draw like that. Later, she would give me money for my drawings so I could buy more art materials. At school, I called myself “the Purple Artist” because purple was my favourite colour. One day, an older student recognised me from a drawing displayed at school and asked, “Are you the Purple Artist?” I still remember that moment. As I grew older, I put art aside. There was no clear route to studying art in Yemen, so I chose Information Technology. Years later, I returned to drawing while listening to my husband, Saber, play classical piano. His music made me see shapes and colours. My first exhibition in Sana’a in 2016 confirmed that return. People came during the war, despite the risks outside. For a few hours, art gave us a shared space of calm.
What themes do you tend to interrogate in your creative practices?
I often return to identity and who has the power to shape it. I look at how war, displacement and social expectations enter ordinary life, especially the lives of women and families. Yemen is often presented through numbers, war and headlines. I am interested in the individual lives behind that image: their relationships, memories, fears and ways of caring for one another. I also explore what people carry between places, including family memory, inherited traditions and the search for belonging. Across my work, I want each person to remain larger than the category or story placed around them.
What is your favourite project you’ve ever worked on and why?
My favourite project is The White Canvas, especially the Family Series at its centre. I had carried the idea for years. It became the first series I made after threats linked to the community art practice I shared with my husband forced us to stop working publicly in Yemen. When I arrived in Scotland, I questioned where I stood as a self-taught artist in a country with museums, art schools and established creative networks. I entered four works from the Family Series for the John Byrne Award. I entered mainly to say, “I am an artist, and I am here.” When I won a quarterly award, I began to trust that my work could speak for itself. The series remains closest to me because it brought me back after a period of silence and holds my memories of Yemeni family life.
What advice would you have for creatives of colour looking to get into your creative practices?
Every dream begins as an idea. Take that idea seriously, even when the route towards it is unclear. I spent years thinking art was impractical. I had limited access to art education and later felt behind artists who had trained formally. I learned that formal training is one route into art. Practice, curiosity and persistence are routes too. Let people see your work before you feel fully ready. Put it online, join creative communities and attend events. Many of my opportunities began when someone saw my work and recognised something in it. Keep ownership of your story. Your background can shape your work, but you should decide how it is shared and what you create next. No opportunity should trap you inside one label.
What are you currently working on?
I am in the final stages of a new series of oil paintings. I am keeping the full details private until the work is ready, but it continues my interest in women’s lives, inherited beliefs and experiences passed between generations. I am also completing an MSc in Creative Industries at the University of Edinburgh and preparing for a public conversation at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Image Credit: Ryan Lindborg