The gloves used by Omar Hassan to paint canvas lie on the ground in his studio.
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Omar Hassan wears his gloves in his studio, getting ready to hit the canvas.
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Hassan, a 29-year-old artist and boxer, has combined his two passions, with the goal to bring the disciplines closer.
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Born in Milan to an Italian mother and Egyptian father, Hassan creates the works by dipping his glove in paint and punching the canvas, stretched over cardboard to keep it from breaking.
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Omar Hassan admires his creation after some heavy jabbing and crossing.
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Hassan’s paintings sell for between 8,000 and 40,000 euros ($8,900 and $44,500), which he calls “a great satisfaction, but not the goal.”
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For Hassan, the dream of becoming an artist came first, and he started with graffiti street art before getting an arts degree at the Brera Academy. At the same time, he started to train as a boxer, but never competed professionally due to diabetes.
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Hassan says boxing has shaped him as a person and influenced him artistically. “You sometimes get a minute to breathe but you have to get back in to fight.
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“In life you are alone, you have to fight.”
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“If you fall you have to leap back up and that’s life. ”
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