About the Artist

BENJAMIN HASSAN was born in Gibraltar in 1976 and began to paint from a very young age. He learned in yeshivot Mikdash Melech and Medrash Shmuel in Jerusalem from '94 - '98, studying Safrut (Scriptural calligraphy) in his free time under the guidance of R' Yitschak Benzecry Shlita. He has written several Megillot (scrolls of Esther), some beautifully illuminated with intricate, colourful designs.

His education in the Fine Arts continued in Salford University, Manchester, and most recently in York University, Toronto, where he is graduating with a BA in Visual Arts.

He has excelled in various areas in the programme, from drawing and painting to photography and printmaking, and has achieved a high level of proficiency in a broad range of media within each discipline.

Commercially, his work is mainly confined to original, highly personalized commissioned pieces, such as original hand written ketubahs, portraits in oil, and even some reproductions of Master Paintings.

Most recently, he has undertaken his first production piece; the Illuminated Sephardic Haggadah, available this Pesach as a Fine Art Collector's Limited Edition. Inspired by architectural and decorative details from select Synagogues worldwide, this work is warm, enticing, and intricately beautiful.

The individual illuminations are painted in watercolour, and the Hebrew text is entirely hand written. The Hebrew pages are accompanied by an English translation with lucid instructions by the renown R' Jonathan Cohen (author of The Sephardi Haggadah), and these are typeset on equally inviting designed pages. Both the Hebrew and English pages are extremely clear and easily readable.

Please follow the links above to learn more about this exciting venture.