Mohammad AlKrunz

Mohammad AlKrunz photo

Mohammad AlKrunz

A Palestinian visual artist based in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza. He began his artistic journey in the early 1990s, driven by his natural talent, passion, and dedication to the craft of drawing. He refined his skills through various art courses in charcoal and pencil drawing, as well as oil painting, at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) studio in Gaza. In his early years, Mohammad was influenced by several art movements, particularly realism and symbolic realism.

 

 Over time, he developed a distinctive style by blending elements from various art schools in a contemporary way. His artistic niche emerged in pointillism—the use of colored dots to compose artworks—while drawing inspiration from impressionism and expressionism. Mohammad engages with modern artistic contexts in an integrative manner, incorporating realism, expressionism, and impressionism into his creations. Through his experience in realistic art, Mohammad infuses his subjects with a strong sense of sensuality and expressionism. His paintings often focus on human figures, nature, and realistic scenes. He views art as a profound humanistic message, especially in a reality shaped by cruelty, colonial oppression, siege, and restrictions on people's movement and dreams. As a result, his work often explores humanitarian, social, and political themes. Mohammad has showcased his art in numerous local and international exhibitions. Notable among them are his solo exhibitions, including "Colors" in 2016 at the YMCA and "The Countryside of the Camp" in 2021.

 

At the start of the war, the Al-Krunz family's four-story house was shelled with an artillery shell. It is located in the Al-Bureij border camp near the separation fence. On the fifth day of the war, Mohamed and his family left their house. Later, the camp was invaded by Israeli ground forces, and the house was occupied and burned, although some artworks were spared from the fire. Then, his apartment, particularly the studio, was targeted, resulting in significant damage to many artworks. In the seventh month of the war, Mohammad returned home despite its severe damage and stayed there for about two months. During this time, he organized a week-long artistic recreational activity for children but had to stop when the house was directly targeted by gunfire from military forces in the area. This marked my seventh displacement, this time to the seashore, where he stayed for nearly two months. However, due to high tides, rising waves, and flooding in many tents, he was displaced for the eighth time, moving to an empty plot of land that he rented. The artist made desperate attempts to sneak into the house to save whatever remained of the works, but later the house was bombed again, causing all the remaining walls to collapse. The artist no longer knows the fate of those artworks in the destroyed house, caught between fire and bombing, even though it still stands on its pillars.

Artworks

Exhibitions