Mazin Al Sheriyani

Meet Mazin

Mazin Al-Shariani is an Omani visual artist whose work is deeply rooted in childhood memories and the landscapes of his village. From experimenting on paper as a young child to developing a distinct visual identity during his studies at Sultan Qaboos University, Mazin has shaped an artistic voice that blends heritage, memory, and contemporary expression. His art reimagines old mud houses, concrete walls, and the silent stories they hold, transforming overlooked environments into rich visual narratives. Today, Mazin continues to explore both representational and abstract forms, producing works that connect personal memory with cultural history through thoughtful, expressive compositions.

My journey with drawing began even before I fully entered the world of art.

During my childhood, I discovered an early talent for interacting with the paper surface, and my elementary school teachers played a major role in recognizing and nurturing my drawing skills. As I grew older, my awareness and understanding of art expanded, and after elementary school, my connection to drawing became clearer in both form and practice.

It was during this stage that I decided I wanted to become both a visual artist and an art teacher. In 2019, I was accepted into Sultan Qaboos University in the Art Education program. Through my academic journey, I was able to develop a personal visual identity through which I created artworks with diverse intellectual perspectives and a distinct artistic character.

I can confidently say that I became a visual artist in 2022 after many experiments and artworks that I produced both in the Art Education Department and through my personal artistic practice. In 2024, I presented various artistic experiments with a unique approach and received many certificates of appreciation alongside my participation in several exhibitions, in addition to winning a number of awards at the wilaya level.

Inspiration

The conceptual framework of my artworks revolves around preserving certain spatial memories from my childhood village and the visual and intellectual impact they left on me. My works portray old mud houses from my village as well as concrete walls, rendered through a contemporary visual language. Through these visuals, I express how deeply memories intertwine with place and color, and how an artist possesses a unique lens to interpret any lived spatial memory.

The memories of old houses and concrete walls are the earliest childhood images that shaped my imagination, filled with questions such as: Who built them? Who lived there? What stories did these walls witness?

In this context, I see myself as an artist who transforms unnoticed visual environments into spaces closer to understanding—bridging personal memory with heritage and human history amid rapid modern development. The artist, in this sense, becomes one of the essential pillars that reconnect people with their roots.

From Real Memory to Abstract Memory

In my artistic practice, I began exploring a different path—creating abstract works inspired by the memories I lived. Through abstraction, I started forming a philosophical dialogue in my art centered on the spatial essence of every line on the ground and the traces humans leave behind, from marks etched into the earth to the ways people think and perceive their environment.

In 2022, I produced what I consider my strongest abstract work—a piece that explores the relationship between calligraphy, the word, and artistic composition. In it, I presented a visual dialogue between the sacred word Allah and the letter ف as f in arabic