Nazar Yahya
- Country: Iraq
- Exhibition:
- Between Two Rounds of Fire, the Exile of the Sea
Iraq b.1963
Themes of war, wandering, and expatriation are evident in the work of Iraqi painter, mixed media and installation artist Nazar Yahya. He creates deeply textured pieces that tend to rely on dim colours, such as sandy browns and oily blacks, as well as construction materials and other objects to reflect the deterioration prevalent in a war-torn environment.
Composed by layering different media on fabrics, the two works seen here form a poetic homage to the Tigris river: one of Iraq’s most famous landmarks and the sole subject of his 2010 collection, O’ Tigris, from which these pieces came. A popular choice of subject for Iraq’s first generation of landscape painters, the Tigris in Yahya’s work is abstracted into icons of maritime life: fish, fish hook and man. In each piece, we witness traces of the relationship between life and the river, a relationship under siege today as the river no longer sustains but serves as an informal burial ground for victims of Iraq’s current violence. Through a strikingly condensed visual language, Yahya suggests a parallel between the overlapping layers of materiality and the river’s own surface and layered history.
Yahya, now settled in Houston, graduated from Baghdad’s Academy of Fine Arts with a degree in painting in 1987. He has held solo and group shows in Iraq, Lebanon, the United States, Britain, and across the Gulf Arab region, as well as participating in the Asian Art Biennale. His work is held in public and private collections throughout the Arab world, Europe, and the U.S.
Related artists by country
- Ahmed Alsoudani
- Ayad Alkadhi
- Dia Azzawi
- Faisal Laibi Sahi
- Halim Al Karim
- Hanaa Malallah
- Hayv Kahraman
- Kareem Risan
- Layla Al Attar
- Nedim Kufi
- Shakir Hassan Al Said
- Suad Al-Attar
- Hafidh Al Droubi
- Ismail Fattah
- Kadhim Hayder
- Saadi Al Kaabi
- Nouri Al Rawi
- Issam Al Said
- Hassan Massoudy
- Jamil Hamoudi
- Rafa Al Nasiri
- Amer Al Obaidi
- Hani Mazhar
- Hanoos Hanoos
- Maysaloun Faraj
- Sinan Hussein
- Amar Dawood
- Athier
- Ali Talib
- Mahmoud Obaidi
- Khadeir Al Shakarji
- Ali Al Tajer
- Mahmoud Abboud Fahmy
- Ghassan Ghaib
- Jewad Selim
- Salman Al Basri
- Modhir Ahmed
- Salman Abbas
- Sadik Alfraji
- Tawfik Al Alousi
- Ismael Al Sheikhly
- Sama Al Shaibi
- Adel Abidin
- Afifa Aleiby
- Saadi Al Saffar
- Michael Rakowitz
- Abdul Qadir Al Rassam
- Athar Jaber
- Lorna Selim
- Nabil Safwat
- Nadia Osi
- Faraj Abbo Al Numan
- Khaled Al Jader
- Madiha Umar
- Mahmoud Sabri
- Faik Hassan
- Saleh Al Jumaie
- Atta Sabri
- Jananne Al-Ani
- Abdul Qadir Al Obaidi
- Haidar Al-Mehrabi
- Baghdad Benas
- Naziha Selim
- Rajiha Qudsi
- Ismail Khayat
- Nadira Azzouz
- Widad Orfali
- Zaha Hadid
- Latif Al Ani
- Mahood Ahmed
- Mohammed Ghani Hikmat
- Nuha Radi
- Siham Al Saudi
- Suha Sharif Yousif
- Wasmaa Khalid Chorbachi