Sliman Mansour’s studio in Ramallah fits the stereotypical image of an artist’s creative space: messy, with pens, paintbrushes and photos sprawled across the table alongside half-finished cups of tea and cigarette butts.
The walls of the workspace are lined with his own paintings, as well as canvases gifted to him by fellow artists.
Over the course of his career, Mansour’s work has become internationally renowned for his figurative and symbolic pieces, which capture the social and cultural realities of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation.
One of his most famous paintings is his 1994 work, Last Summer in Palestine, which is his interpretation of Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, except the image of Jesus is replaced by a Palestinian man and 12 Palestinian women take the place of the disciples.
Another famous work is 2005’s Camel of Burdens, which shows a frail Palestinian elder carrying an eye shaped sphere on his back and within it is the city of Jerusalem.