His artwork mostly uses ballpoint pens to create designs. Using these, he produces detailed drawings that look to empower often marginalised minorities through the exploration of identity in his portraits. The artist frequently uses maps and antique texts as his canvas to reconextualise materials and create a cohesion between the information behind the work as well as its aesthetics.
His art is centered around his Sierra Leonean and Lebanese heritage. He uses his own likeness as well as his family to create a sense of immediacy in his artwork and to juxtapose his western upbringing with his family’s West-African culture.
The project, much like Habib’s artwork, resulted in response to urgent calls for action within arts communities to tackle social and racial inequalities around the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. 20/20 supports 20 emerging and mid-career ethnically diverse artists.
Habib is the first of eight artists to start on the project following the selection from an open call earlier this year. A further 12 artists will be joining the programme in 2023.
In addition to his new position as an artist-in-residence, he was also elected as a member of the Royal Society of British Artists.
Habib will end his residency at the Pallant House Gallery in December 2023. His commissioned artwork will become part of the Gallery’s permanent collection and reproduced as a limited edition print to be acquired by 19 partner galleries.