Born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1960, Sadik Kwaish Alfraji lives and works in Amersfoort, Netherlands. In 1987, he received a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad and a diploma in Graphic Design from CHK Constantin Huygens in the Netherlands.

Born in Theeqar, Iraq in 1958, London-based Hanaa Malallah is a visual artist and educator. She received a bachelor’s degree in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad, an MA in Painting, a Ph.D.

Born in 1977 in Iraq, Sinan Hussein graduated from the University of Fine Arts in Baghdad. He is a member of the Iraqi Fine Arts Artist Society and of the Union of Iraqi Artists. Sinan Hussein’s whimsical characters seem weightless in an environment reminiscent of Limbo.

Artwork

Born in Babel in 1965, Ahmed Al Bahrani is a contemporary Iraqi artist and sculptor. After graduating from the Fine Arts Institute in Baghdad in 1988, he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1992-94. Relocating to Qatar in 1998, he co-founded Mimar Gallery with architect Hazem Abu Naba’a and has exhibited regularly throughout the Middle East and internationally. In recent years, he earned a significant following in the Gulf art scene, where he has been featured in some of the region’s most prominent commercial art spaces, such as Art Sawa Gallery in Dubai and Albareh Art Gallery in Bahrain.  He has been commissioned for a number of public works in Iraq, Qatar and across the Middle East.  Constantly evolving his artistic approach, he works across different mediums, including painting, printmaking and reliefs. He lives and works in Qatar.

Born in 1953 in Baghdad, Nawal Alsadon graduated in 1980 in Graphic Design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest, Romania. She began participating in group exhibitions in 1975, beginning with The Association of Iraqi Artists gallery in Baghdad, and since then has had her art shown in numerous exhibitions across the world, including in Romania, Yemen, Syria, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Scotland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Turkey.

Born in 1982, Athier Mousawi lives and works between Paris, London, and Istanbul, and holds a graduate degree in Communication Design with Illustration from Central Saint Martins, UK. In recent years Athier Mousawi’s work has centred on posing unanswerable questions against undefined answers, forming a visual narrative between the two. Since 2007, the subject of much of his work has been Iraq and his diasporic relationship to his foreign homeland, as well as the concept of nostalgic referencing in how we idolise and remember our past, present, and future. Separate to his artistic practice, Athier has worked extensively as an educator in the UK and abroad. For three consecutive years, beginning in 2007, Athier worked as a British Museum Arab Artist in Residence, working in schools throughout the UK. In 2011, he was selected to serve as the Chasing Mirrors Artist in Residence at the National Portrait Gallery, leading workshops in community centres across London. Athier has also worked in a number of refugee camps as a workshop leader in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan, and in 2014 was invited by the Palestinian Museum as a Visiting Artist to conduct workshops with children in the West Bank. In 2015, he was selected to work at the artist-run interdisciplinary space Beirut Art Residency. Athier has participated in many solo and group exhibitions including in Beirut, Dubai, Geneva, London, Jeddah and Tashkent.