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Lot Essay
'Being a war survivor dominates one's psyche. It is a layer that is not easily shed. The topic and the emotions attached to it take precedent regardless of one's attempts to move on. It becomes the emotional arc by which one compares all other experiences (with the exception of the loss of a loved one)(...) I use sarcasm, anger, sex, and humor to express the topics in question.'
(Ayad Alkadhi, in an interview with Abigail Esman, Forbes Magazine, 22nd February 2012).
When the Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston hosted the exhibition Iraqi Artists in Exile, Ayad Alkadhi was one of the participants alongside Dia Azzawi and Shakir Hasan Al Said. Like many of his fellow artists, Alkadhi escaped the Saddam Hussain dictatorship dominating his native land in 1994. He travelled and lived in New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and England, before settling down in Palm Springs, California. His works overflow with rich colours, texture, media, emotional intensity and raw imagery, as they represent his own personal artistic platform to express all the feelings of death and horror experienced through war. He often uses Arabic newspapers on mixed media canvas, incorporating calligraphy and sometimes his own portrait. Through his works, he connects traditional Arabic culture with powerful, cutting-edge expressions of the artist's perceived existence as a U.S. resident constantly explaining his thoughts on the war, Saddam Hussein and the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Although the present work may include some cheerful candy-like colours, it embodies various layers of struggle. The visual struggle and chaos happening on the canvas between the different bright and dark pigments and the distorted and monstrous shapes cry out the artist's psychological struggle in witnessing the atrocities of his homeland as well as reflecting the survival struggle of his compatriots who stayed in Iraq.
(Ayad Alkadhi, in an interview with Abigail Esman, Forbes Magazine, 22nd February 2012).
When the Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston hosted the exhibition Iraqi Artists in Exile, Ayad Alkadhi was one of the participants alongside Dia Azzawi and Shakir Hasan Al Said. Like many of his fellow artists, Alkadhi escaped the Saddam Hussain dictatorship dominating his native land in 1994. He travelled and lived in New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and England, before settling down in Palm Springs, California. His works overflow with rich colours, texture, media, emotional intensity and raw imagery, as they represent his own personal artistic platform to express all the feelings of death and horror experienced through war. He often uses Arabic newspapers on mixed media canvas, incorporating calligraphy and sometimes his own portrait. Through his works, he connects traditional Arabic culture with powerful, cutting-edge expressions of the artist's perceived existence as a U.S. resident constantly explaining his thoughts on the war, Saddam Hussein and the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Although the present work may include some cheerful candy-like colours, it embodies various layers of struggle. The visual struggle and chaos happening on the canvas between the different bright and dark pigments and the distorted and monstrous shapes cry out the artist's psychological struggle in witnessing the atrocities of his homeland as well as reflecting the survival struggle of his compatriots who stayed in Iraq.