Jwan Yosef, who grew up in a family with many different ethnic backgrounds, hasn’t chosen a religion to identify with.
The 37-year-old painter was born to a Kurdish father, Ahmad Yosef, and an Armenian mother, Hiba Hammoud. He has always had trouble figuring out who he is and what he is.
Like most of us, he doesn’t like being labeled or put into a certain group. Instead, he wants to try everything he can.
His art, which is mostly based on and inspired by groups that don’t get enough attention, is about belonging and figuring out who you are.
As a queer person with a lot of life experience, Jwan retells and reframes stories and pictures that we are told to believe, drawing inspiration from his internal and external environments.
What faith does Jwan Yosef follow? Does he believe in the Muslim religion?
Jwan Yosef is conflicted between the two religions he grew up with, Christianity and the Muslim faith, and has not yet made a decision regarding his spiritual discipline. His father is a very religious Muslim, but his mother is a Christian from Armenia.
The CIA World Factbook says that in 2011, most Armenians were Christians, while 87 percent of Syrians said they were Muslims.
Also, it makes it harder to tell if he is Muslim or Christian because even his wedding didn’t follow the traditions or rules of either religion.
Yosef got married to Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin in 2017 without a ceremony or party. After dating for two years, the couple made their promises public and got married by signing the required paperwork.
Ricky Martin Is Married to Jwan Yosef comes from Syrian and Armenian roots
Jwan Yosef, who is married to Ricky Martin, was born in Syria in 1984 to an Armenian mother and a Kurdish father. When he was two years old, his family moved to Sweden.
The 37-year-old actor went on to study painting at Stockholm’s Pernby School of Painting from 2004 to 2006. He then moved to Stockholm’s Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts, and Design.
Yosef has been in a lot of group art shows and art festivals. In 2013, he had two solo shows: High Notes at the Galleri Anna Thulin in Stockholm and Painting about Sex, Flesh, and Violence, lol at the DIVUS Gallery in London.
He was in the Threadneedle Prize exhibition and the 2013 BEERS Contemporary Award for Emerging Art. He set up a studio at The Bomb Factory Art Foundation in Archway, North London, and still owns it.