Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Habib Hajallie artist

Habib Hajallie was born into a Sierra Leonean-Lebanese family in London, England on 23 June 1995. He received his art education at Ravensbourne University London and Loughborough University and soon established himself as a Ballpoint portraitist, challenging British colonial narratives. He was elected a mamber of The Royal Soceity of British Artists (RBA) in 2022.

Born: 1995 London, England


Biography

Ballpoint artist Habib Hajallie was born into a Sierra Leonean-Lebanese family on 23 June 1995 in London, England. He received an Art & Design Foundation diploma from Ravensbourne University London in 2014. That same year, he enrolled for a BA in Fine Arts at Loughborough University, graduating in 2017.

Habib Hajallie’s oeuvre is primarily focused on ballpoint pen drawings. Instead of a traditional canvas, he reuses printed pieces of paper, such as maps, book pages, and antique texts. This method allows him to elevate figures and backgrounds, showcasing individuals from ethnically diverse communities often overlooked in British portraiture. His focus on monochrome black ballpoint pen highlights Blackness, demonstrating that an individual’s essence transcends skin colour. Employing a modern art medium with classical techniques inspired by late Renaissance sketches, he promotes the art of drawing in an increasingly digital era. Hajallie’s portraits address socio-political themes, especially the devaluation of certain groups, notably minorities rarely seen in mainstream media, embedded in outdated colonial hierarchies. His work seeks to amend the historical invisibility of ethnic minority communities, challenging established ideas of Britishness.

Drawing from his Sierra Leonean and Lebanese heritage, Hajallie’s art often features Surrealist-inspired scenes that critique persistent ethnocentrisms in contemporary Western society. Including self-portraits and depictions of family members, Hajallie’s art navigates the intersection of his Western upbringing and West African roots, creating a sense of immediacy. His detailed mark-making with a ballpoint pen showcase his precision and skill. The themes in his work contest widely accepted narratives of West African histories, highlighting the old ideologies that underlie the subtle prejudices he has encountered.

Hajaille has exhibited in many annual shows in the UK under the auspices of artists' professional bodies, including the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours and the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA, of which he was elected a member in 2022). He has also featured in thematic shows that speak to the immigrant and diaspora experience. In 2017, his work was included in a group exhibition titled Diaspora Dialogue at Winn’s Gallery in Walthamstow, east London, which explored themes of identity and migration through various mediums. In 2020, he participated in Embracing Our Differences 2020 organised in Florida by a USA non-profit organisation of the same name whose remit focuses on common humanity alongside individuality via art and education. His work titled Can I Touch Your Hair? celebrated Pan-Africanism and the Afro-British experience while examining Afro hair and the subtle societal prejudices that mark someone as non-white. For the picture surface, he used pages from a 1940s text titled Sierra Leone Studies. In 2024 a major solo exhibition Habib Hajallie: Penned into History opened at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, exploring themes of portraiture and disrupting colonial narrative. The principal exhibit,The Large Collectors, was a drawing produced by Hajallie during his residency at the Gallery, under the auspices of UAL’s Decolonising Art Institute’s 20/20 programme. In this piece, Hajallie presented a self-portrait integrated with pivotal figures from the establishment of the gallery’s own collection: Walter Hussey, Charles Kearley, and Colin St John Wilson. By portraying himself in their roles, Hajallie challenged the traditional perception of the modern British art collector. In the same year, as part of Black History Month, he presented an exhibition titled Habib Hajallie: Black Pen Portraits at the Attenborough Arts Centre in Leicester, exploring themes of Blackness and portraiture.

Hajallie has received many art and illustration awards and recognitions. In 2018, he was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries. In 2019, he was a finalist for the Artists Collecting Society Studio Prize and won the Draw ‘19 Under 30s Prize awarded by The Society of Graphic Fine Art. The same year, he received the Developing Your Creative Practice Grant from Arts Council England (ACE) and, in 2020, Hajallie secured a National Lottery Project Grant, also from the Arts Council. In 2021, he received the Young Artist Award from the Society of Graphic Fine Art and was highly commended for both the De Laszlo Foundation Prize from the RBA and The Anthony J. Lester Art Critic Award from the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour. The following year, in 2022, Hajallie was named UK New Artist of the Year by UKNA & Saatchi Gallery and was highly commended again for the De Laszlo Foundation Prize. In 2023, he continued his success by winning The Hermione Hammond Drawing Award from the New English Art Club (NEAC) and The Damian Greenish Drawing Award at the Gallery at Green & Stone in London. He has also undertaken several residencies, including at Southwark Park Galleries in 2021, and at the Watts Gallery in Guildford, and as part of the Decolonising Arts Institute at Pallant House, both between 2022 and 2023. Habib Hajallie lives and works in Dartford, Kent, England. In 2024, his work was not listed in any public collection in the UK.

Related organisations

  • Loughborough University (student )
  • Ravensbourne University London (student)
  • Royal Institute of Painters and Watercolours (member)
  • Royal Society of British Artists (member)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • Habib Hajallie: Penned into History (solo exhibition), Pallant House Gallery, Chichester (2024)
  • Habib Hajallie: Black Pen Portraits (solo exhibition), Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester (2024)
  • Society of Graphic Fine Art 99th Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London (2021)
  • Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition (group show), Mall Galleries, London (2021)
  • Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 209th Exhibition (group show), Mall Galleries, London (2021)
  • RCA Annual Exhibition 2021 (group show), Royal Cambrian Academy of Art, Conwy, Wales (2021)
  • Embracing Our Differences 2020 (group show), Sarasota Park, Florida, USA (2020)
  • Royal Society of British Artists 303rd Annual Exhibition (group show), Mall Galleries, London (2020)
  • Sierra Leone Arts & Culture Festival (group show), Young Salone/Deptford lounge, London (2019)
  • Diaspora Dialogue (group show), Winn’s Gallery, London (2017)
  Habib Hajallie
   
Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Habib Hajallie]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Habib Hajallie] in the Ben Uri Library