Exhibition Of Iraqi Artists
30 March - 2 May 2015

Ala Bashir: Memories Of Chairs

This show is an attempt to reflect on: what makes a child fight to sit on a particular chair; why most people prefer to sit on the same chair at home; what makes chairs of Napoleon, Isaac Newton, Henry The VIII look different than a chair in a waiting room; whether 'chair' becomes a metaphor for identity, home, authority, and security.

Ala Bashir was born in Iraq in 1939, eighteen years after his country declared independence from Britain. As an artist and physician, Bashir was once not only part of Saddam Hussein’s medical team, but his reluctant confidant too. The resultant works from this period are given shocking context by Saddam’s remark that they would be ‘a record of Iraq at (that) point in history’.

Ali Jabbar: The Blind Mask

First studying in Baghdad, then at the KKA Design School Copenhagen, Ali Jabbar - the painter and the sculptor - has developed a particular style that will question the viewer’s perception of reality. Based on the artist’s understanding of the world we live in, the paintings are a combination of fiction and facts that contradict each other. Jabbar’s characters never reveal their secrets, but hide underneath masks of seduction and deep contemplation.

The empty, hollow eyes of these masks remind us of Ancient Mesopotamian sculptures, while the accessories that dress the broken bodies are controversially very contemporary.

Hani Mazhar: Countless Shades

Originally from Baghdad but leaving and working in London since 1991, Hani Mazhar has produced artworks that are both timeless and iconic.

Symbolic are the birds, flowers and crowns that decorate the paintings. These characters seem to possess wisdom that mere mortals could not understand. That is the reason we are so attracted to Mazhar’s paintings, trying to grasp some knowledge hidden their metaphors and riddles. His paintings are a mix of the heavenly, fantasy, and reality, countless shades of human nature. 

Hay Hill Gallery also presents a sculpture collection which features works by Eleanor Cardozo, Nicola Godden, Richard L.Minns, Andy Cheese, Jamie McCartney, Ian Edwards, Gianfranco Meggiato, Alfonso & Massimiliano Cacchiarelli Principi, David Mayer, Roland Piché, Palolo Valdés, Anne Tanner, Sam Shendi, Ruurd Hallema, and Oleg Prokofiev.

E-mail: info@hayhillgallery.com