Syrian artist imprisoned by Assad opens exhibit in Damascus

A Syrian artist who was arrested by the regime of former President Bashar Al-Assad in 2014 has opened an exhibition of his work at the National Museum of Damascus.

The exhibition by Saleh al-Hajr, titled “Writings from the Walls of the Cell,” will be on view at the museum through the end of the month and includes 20 artworks that detail the suffering of Syrian detainees in Assad’s prisons.

Syria’s Culture Ministry said in a statement that detainees “endured the worst forms of injustice and oppression at the hands of the Assad regime.”

“Through these works, al-Hajr conveys the cries of the detainees that echoed behind the prison walls, transforming sorrow into an artistic language that tells stories of resilience, determination, and the ability to turn pain into hope,” Syria’s Culture Ministry said.

The exhibition was organized by the Damascus Countryside Directorate of Culture in collaboration with Syria’s General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums. Culture Minister Mohammad Yassin al-Saleh attended the opening.

Urgent Matter has reached out to al-Hajr for more information and additional comment but did not hear back by press time.

Images from the show include one of a painting that references a calendar used to count the passing of days in detention. The artwork includes Arabic calligraphy of the text, “Your Relief, O Lord,” scrawled on the weathered limestone of the cell wall.

Another painting layers fragments of Arabic text, including the proverb “patience is the key to relief,” alongside references to time and place.

Mounted on freestanding supports and arranged in a line, the works read like a series of records, their distressed surfaces and fragmented Arabic text set against the controlled environment of a state museum.

The exhibition opens amid a sweeping political transition following the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024, when a rebel offensive led by Ahmed al-Sharaa seized Damascus and forced Assad to flee.

Al-Sharaa, who previously led Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, was declared Syria’s transitional president in January 2025.

The new government has since moved to dismantle Assad-era institutions and reassert control over state sites, including cultural venues such as the National Museum in Damascus.

The handover of authority has also brought increased efforts to align Syria’s archaeological and cultural practices with international frameworks, alongside a broader push to reestablish cultural soft power.

In December, Syrian officials announced that suspects had been arrested in connection with a November heist at the museum, in which thieves stole six statues all of the Roman goddess Venus.

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