Born and raised in Cape Town and having graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2007, Hasan Essop, in collaboration with his brother Husain, has explored the role of the individual in society through haunting photography, drawing on Islamic imagery to explore clashes of culture, morality, religion, and secularism.
During 2009 they completed a residency in Cuba – coinciding with the inclusion of their work on Integration and Resistance in the Global Age at the Havana Biennale – and facilitated a workshop on invitation from the University of Hamburg, Germany. In September 2011 the brothers completed a three-month residency at the prestigious Thami Mneyele Foundation in Amsterdam.
They have held solo exhibitions of their work at Goodman Gallery (South Africa) and Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde (Dubai), and their work has been featured in several international group exhibitions. In 2014 the brothers were awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art.
Hasan has also used his artistic career to work with children of all ages and backgrounds through creative artistic engagement, with the aim of creating an awareness of the arts for those who wouldn’t ordinarily have access, and whose creativity is still untapped.
Hasan will be travelling to India to spend his residency at Khoj