Malak Mattar was born in 1999 in the Gaza Strip and grew up under occupation and the military siege. From a family of talented cultural practitioners, Mattar started making art as a teenager during a period of open conflict (Operation Protective Edge, 2014), and she soon began to sell work online and exhibit internationally. She won a scholarship to study political science at Istanbul Aydin university (2018–22) and another to study a Masters of Fine Art at Central Saint Martin’s, London, in 2023.

Soon after arriving in the UK, Mattar’s entire world was turned upside down, causing her work to undergo a dramatic shift in style, subject matter and palette. While artist-in-residence at An Effort in Central London (December 2023–February 2024), she documented the genocide in her homeland through a series of mostly monochrome drawings and paintings. She later combined these scenes into a monumental greyscale painting called No Words. This work is a testimony to the apocalyptic horror and extent of the displacement, ethnic cleansing and atrocities being ravaged upon Mattar’s fellow Palestinians: “It needs to be completely horrific,” she stated while making the work, “otherwise it will not accurately reflect the genocide.”

Mattar wrote and illustrated the bestselling children’s book Sitti’s Bird (2021) based on her own life experiences, which is already in its second print run. In defiance of strict travel restrictions, Mattar has lectured in universities across the USA (2020–21) and she has had solo exhibitions in Palestine (2015 onwards); Costa Rica (2015); Great Britain (2017, 2018, 2023, 2024); Sweden (2018); USA (2019, 2021); Germany (2020); Lebanon (2021); Portugal (2022) and Italy (2022). Most recently, Malak had two concurrent exhibitions in London, and her monumental painting No Words was shown for the first time (March 2024). Her artworks have also been collected, published, and exhibited in numerous group shows worldwide.