dialogue
Samah Rafiq | Artist
April 2025
6 min read
We sit down with London-based painter Samah Rafiq for a dialogue that spans medium, memory, and the making of a practice and more. Known for her glistening, tactile oil paintings that draw viewers into worlds of sensation and desire, Samah speaks about the experiences that have shaped her, from discovering painting as a teenager to completing her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art.
What unfolds is a thoughtful exchange about the ritual of working with oil, the ways her graphic design background continues to inform her visual language, and how she’s preparing for her highly anticipated solo exhibition with refuses. She reflects on how her practice has evolved not just in style but in intention, and how looking inward has become as vital as looking outward.
Whether you are encountering Samah’s work for the first time or are already a fan, this dialogue offers a generous glimpse into an artist who is both precise and poetic, committed to crafting images that linger, glimmer, and quietly disrupt.
Studio image of Samah Rafiq. Courtesy of Stella McGarvey.
Completing your MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2024 may have been transformative? How did this experience shape your artistic vision?
“The RCA was instrumental in helping me understand what truly lies at the heart of my practice. I’d always had a general sense of what influenced me as a painter, but it wasn’t until I was immersed in the conversations, tutorials, and shifting perspectives during my time there that things began to click in a much deeper way.
My approach to painting, and how I understood my own work, changed profoundly. One of the most meaningful lessons I took away was the power of shifting perspective. It taught me to look at my practice through new contexts, to narrow in on ideas that felt more focused and intentional, and to rethink the way I experiment and present my work.
That shift didn’t just affect how I paint, it reshaped how I think.”
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Samah Rafiq, Silver Lining, 135cm x 300cm, Oil on Canvas, 2025. Image courtesy of Toxic Arts Gallery.
Oil painting is central to your practice. What draws you to this medium, and how does it support the themes you explore?
“Oil painting is my preferred medium of choice, and has been since I was introduced and encouraged towards it by my secondary school art teacher (Mr Everson).
I’ve always painted using glazing techniques, carefully building up layers of opacity, gradation, texture, and sheen. There’s a kind of alchemy in being able to manipulate the paint and coaxing it into exactly what I need it to become. That level of control and transformation is integral to how I work.
Because my practice revolves around depicting experience, specifically the sensations of touch, desire, and allure, it requires a medium that can hold and express that complexity. Oil paint, with its depth, tactility, and richness, is uniquely suited to that task. The act of painting with oil feels almost ritualistic to me; it’s more than a method, it’s embedded in the emotional and conceptual fabric of my work.”
Samah Rafiq, Lucky Star, 40cm x 110cm, Oil on Canvas 2024.
When did painting stop being just something you did, and start feeling like something you wanted to pursue a career in?
“Since I was really young, I knew painting was something I wanted to pursue. I think the final shift came during my undergraduate study. I went into my study under the premise of training to teach art after graduation. The more I studied and networked, the more the idea of painting and pursuing an artistic practice independently seemed like a tangible idea.
I’m very passionate about painting and deepening my research further, so to be able to pursue that and share it with an audience is something I am constantly striving for.”
Samah Rafiq, Afterlife, 35cm x 180cm, Oil on Canvas, 2024.
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Has your practice taught you anything about yourself that you didn’t know before you began this journey?
“Absolutely, it’s taught me a great deal about how my thinking and practice evolve in tandem. I’ve come to understand that observation and reflection are at the core of how I work. My process relies on sustained looking, questioning, and responding, and the themes I explore have always felt closely tied to my ongoing research and personal interests.
It’s also made me aware of what I can accomplish when I’m fully engaged with the work. I’m used to pushing forward, always seeking development in my practice. Taking the time to step back and recognise the progress I’ve made over the past few years has become an important part of how I understand growth, not just in output, but in process and critical engagement.”
Samah Rafiq, Communion, 70cm x 200cm, Oil on Canvas, 2024.
Samah, not everyone may know, but you're highly skilled in graphic design. How did you find the shift from graphic design to painting, and do you see any connections between the two?
“Thank you for that. My graphic design skills definitely go hand in hand with my practice as a painter. They inform every part of how I create, from editing and constructing compositions to developing the theoretical grounding of my work. It never felt like a shift, but rather a continuation of the same visual language, now taking form through paint.
The ability to form an identity, shape a style, and work with sign systems to signal meaning has come directly from my experience in graphic design. That background has made it much easier for me to tailor visual cues and refine how my work communicates with an audience.”
After your fantastic exhibition in Germany curated by Kira Streletzki, many are eagerly anticipating your next solo show presented by refuses later this year. What can you share at this point about your upcoming exhibition?
“I’m thrilled to be working with Refuses for my next solo show, the spirit of collaboration is truly alive in this project.
I am currently brimming with ideas, and spending all my time planning my pieces and painting. Trust that it will be full of punchy, shiny, glimmery material. The focus is for the work to be as invasive and appealing as possible, very much a dichotomic experience.”
Studio image of Samah Rafiq. Courtesy of Stella McGarvey.
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