As a Syrian artist living in Scotland, Amr works with the friction of belonging and unbelonging, the negotiations of visibility, the quiet labour of survival and the tension between stereotype and lived experience. His objects and installations disrupt linear narratives, holding personal and collective histories in fragmented, layered forms. Viewers are invited into these spaces of in-between to confront their own memories alongside his. Amr questions where art should exist. He often chooses non-traditional spaces in response to institutional limits, exploring how art circulates within communities, nightlife and everyday encounters. His projects resist clean categorisation. Materials shift, break and reassemble. Processes evolve through research, intuition and the demands of the concept.
Influenced by daily life, media and the energy of the club as a site of collective release, Amr positions his own presence, and at times his body, as part of the work. Visibility becomes a gesture of cultural resistance and a refusal to disappear. Through his practice, he builds spaces for reflection, disruption and gathering, insisting on narratives that are too often marginalised, misread or silenced.
Artist Bio
Amr (he/him) is a British Syrian-born artist based between Edinburgh and London. Born in Damascus in 1996, he moved to Cairo in 2013 to study Law, where he completed his first and second years before leaving in 2018. He later relocated to Edinburgh as a refugee through the UN Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. He is currently studying BA (Hons) Sculpture and Environmental Art at the Glasgow School of Art (2024–2026), following an HND in Contemporary Art Practice (2022–2024) and earlier qualifications in Art and Design and Fashion and Textiles at Edinburgh College.
In 2024, Amr was selected for the Mophradat Artists Fellowship and joined Take Me Somewhere Festival as an Assistant Producer, continuing to support the 2025 programme. He is the co-founder of Qiwa and Drip, platforms based in Glasgow and Edinburgh that support underground performance and music scenes. Alongside his visual practice, he works as a DJ and performer within Scotland’s underground club scene, with appearances at Edinburgh Art Festival, Jupiter Rising, Buzzcut, and Take Me Somewhere Festival, as well as venues including CCA Glasgow, Stereo, Sneaky Pete’s, Exit, The Flying Duck, and Summerhall, and internationally across London, Brussels, and Berlin.
Employment
2025 – December 2025
Assistant Producer
Take Me Somewhere Festival
(Glasgow)
January – April 2024
Assistant Producer
Studio Somewhere, Take Me Somewhere Festival
(Glasgow)
Referrals
Karl Taylor
FESTIVAL MANAGER TAKE ME SOMEWHERE LTD Tramway, 25 Albert Drive, Glasgow G41 2PE
e. karl@takemesomewhere.co.uk
M. 07834 751536
www.takemesomewhere.co.uk
Solo Exhibitions
October 2025
'Stories Between the Walls’
Lab Gallery, Stow Building, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, UK
Group Exhibitions
October 2025
Peculiar Papier Mâché
Collaborative Project with Josie KO
OUTPOST, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, UK
November 2025
Big show
Burns St. Studio
15 Burns St, Glasgow G4 9SA
October 2025
Work in progress
Sink Gallery, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, UK
March 2025
NEGOTIATED: Block - بلوك
Garage Gallery, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, UK
November 2024
PRAXIS selected archive
(The Archives of Atassi Gallery)
Stow Building, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, UK
June 2024
HND Contemporary Art Practice Graduate Show Sett Studios, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
September 2022
2D3 Exhibition HubCap Gallery
Edinburgh College, Scotland, UK
June 2022
UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma Showcase Edinburgh College, Scotland, UK
Awards
2024
Mophradat Artists Fellowship Assistant Producer placement with Take Me Somewhere Festival, Glasgow
2022
Student of the Year – Edinburgh College Awarded in recognition of outstanding achievement and contribution to the creative community
Projects & Fundraisers
March 2024
NEVER GO OUT: Glasgow Art Legacy Film Fundraiser
SWG3, Glasgow