ART IN IRAQ TODAY

“Art in Iraq Today represents the fractured Iraq, scattered all over the world.The artists represented are from the Iraqi diaspora each expressing his experience and sentiment, all united under one roof.This is the power of art as a universal language but at the same time subject to the artist’s personal message.”

                                                                                                                                      – Rula Zaki

The display Art in Iraq Today, organised by Solidere, Meem Gallery and Rula Alami Zaki and curated by Dia Al Azzawi and Charles Pocock, brings together a group of 14 Iraqi artists, including:  Dia Al-Azzawi, Amar Dawod,  Ali Jabbar, Halim Al-Karim, Nedim Kufi, Hanaa Malallah, Rafa Al-Nasiri, Mahmoud Obaidi, Delair Shaker and Nazar Yahya

DIA AL AZZAWI, Coloured Obelisk

AZZAWI, Zorah on her Terrace, Marrakech

AZZAWI, Edrisi's Map of the World

Green Field, Marrakech

AZZAWI, Guarding his Mysterious Gift

Dia Al- Azzawi (b. Baghdad, 1939) graduated from the Insitute of Fine Arts in Baghdad. His art was heavily impaced by his studies of ancient civilization and Iraqi heritage. During Azzawi’s time in London he rediscovered book art (dafater); he encourages artist of the region to draw inspiration from it finding it to be the truest art form from the Arab World.

NAZAR YEHYA, Al Jawahiri's Triptych

“Nazar Yahya (b. 1963) received his BA in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts, Baghdad University. His recent work is based on the Tigris River, a subject which has been a source of inspiration for many Iraqi artists and poets”

AMAR DAWOD, Fortifications, 200x250cm

Amer Dawod (b. Baghdad, 1957) studied at the Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad. He know lives in Vastervik Sweden. He descirbes: ‘Painting… is a kind of liberation and thrilling road, even if that road is sometimes bump.’

DELAIR SHAKER, Outbursts, 185x244cm

SHAKER, Shattered Memories 130x250cm

“Delair Shaker (b. Baghdad, 1971) studied Ceramics at the Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad. Shaker is the son of prominent ceramicist Saad Shaker. He emigrated to Arizona , where he now lives. His most recent work he uses form and percieved mass ‘ as a metaphor of not only my own journey as an Iraqi artist, but as a journey of my father’s country which I saw in flames.”