Amman — Jordanian visual artist Hiyam Zuhair Khroub focuses on portraiture in her artistic practice, making the human face, women, public figures, and humanitarian and national themes central to her work. She employs a variety of materials and techniques, including acrylic paints.
اضافة اعلان
Alongside her artistic work, Khroub remains active in the cultural scene through managing and organizing events and participating in cultural initiatives. This year, she also won first place in the Zarqa Cultural Competition.
In an interview with Al-Ghad, Khroub said portraiture, for her, goes beyond reproducing external features. Rather, it serves as a gateway to expressing the human condition and the emotions, memories and meanings carried by each individual. Women feature prominently in her work as subjects connected to identity, rights, struggle, resistance and hope.
Khroub visually reinterprets her subjects through color, composition and texture, portraying public figures, artists, celebrities and imagined faces, alongside social and national themes. She does not view a painting merely as a means of reproducing an image, but as a space in which to reinterpret a person and reveal the emotions and meanings a face can convey.
She uses acrylic paints to build layers of color and palette knives to create texture and movement. She also incorporates gold leaf to introduce contrast and highlight light, while experimenting with resin to explore transparency, depth and the reflection of light.
Women are among the central subjects in Khroub’s artistic practice. She says she does not present them as isolated aesthetic elements, but connects their presence to humanitarian and social issues involving identity, dignity, resistance and hope. This gives female figures in her paintings dimensions that extend beyond their physical appearance.
Alongside her artistic practice, Khroub serves as head of the Zarqa Association for Heritage and Culture. She is a member of the Jordanian Plastic Artists Association and the Jordanian Writers and Authors Union. She also serves on the judging panel for the Zarqa Cultural Competition, manages activities at the Arab Communities Forum and coordinates the Festival in Support of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.
Khroub has participated in the Basha’er Jerash festival over several editions and has collaborated with Etlala Al-Weibdeh Gallery, the Ministry of Culture and the Jerash Festival, in addition to taking part in various cultural events and initiatives.
This year, she won first place in the Zarqa Cultural Competition, organized by the Zarqa Association for Heritage and Culture. The achievement adds to her artistic record and reflects her continued engagement in both the visual arts and the wider cultural field.
Khroub continues to develop her practice by exploring materials, techniques and themes while maintaining portraiture, women, the human experience, and national and humanitarian issues as central pillars of her work. Her cultural activities run alongside and complement her artistic career.
Concluding her remarks, Khroub said her artistic and cultural journey is built on continually developing her skills and seeking new spaces for expression. She emphasized that, for her, art is not merely an aesthetic practice but a means of engaging with people and their concerns, raising questions that touch on society, identity and memory, while maintaining her presence in Jordan’s cultural scene through her work, participation and initiatives.
