Rezk Afia

Born in 1980 in Saudi Arabia and raised in Syria, Afia Rezk is a painter and maker of handicrafts from recycled materials. She also does ceramics, printmaking, silkscreening and installation, and works with organic elements and living materials. She studied Arabic literature at Damascus University, painting at Al-Lujin Center, and ceramics at Tarek Abd Alhay’s workshop. She teaches art to children and specializes in the coordination of cultural events for them, especially after the revolution.
She participated in exhibitions in Syria and Lebanon. She decided to flee the war with her whole family and arrived in France in 2018. She exhibits in Pontoise, Saint Briac, Lulea in Sweden, and Böblingen in Germany.
She has led art workshops in Syria since 2005 in Art Centers for different age groups and in France since 2019 in colleges, high schools, leisure centers and art schools.
She has implemented many workshops in Syria using art and theater as interactive practices to help families in emergency situations, as well as children and female victims of war.
Afia has participated in several artistic residencies, in Beirut, Lebanon, in France at Saint-Briac, at the Ecole supérieure d’art Annecy, at the Ecole des arts décoratifs de Paris and at the Ecole supérieure d’art de Clermont Métropole. She has joined the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris as part of the “Herodote” program. She will be in residence at the Villa Ruffieux in Château Mercier, Switzerland in January 2023.
She is a member of the agency of the artists in exile.