Habib Hajallie’s Powerful Ballpoint Pen Portraits on Fragments of the Past

Kent-based artist Habib Hajallie creates intricate ballpoint pen portraits on assembled fragments of antique books, maps and printed texts. His work is a powerful collision between portraiture and archive, where each subject seems to both interrupt and belong to the text beneath it.

Through his art, Habib often explores identity, visibility and the historic absence of ethnically diverse figures within traditional British portraiture. Born in Southeast London and informed by his Sierra Leonean and Lebanese heritage, the artist uses found materials to reframe those narratives, placing Black and minority subjects into the visual language of old texts, maps and philosophical fragments. His use of a common ballpoint pen shows how even the simplest tools can create images of remarkable depth and emotional weight.

For more of Habib Hajallie’s work, visit his website and follow him on Instagram.

More art on the grid via Colossal