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Afifa Aleiby

Iraq, Netherlands

Gulf War, 1991
Intifada, 1989

Afifa Aleiby presents two paintings as part of the Biennale. Gulf War reflects Aleiby’s pain for the suffering that had resulted from the Persian Gulf War, which happened between 1990 to 1991 and was triggered by the Iraqi invasion of the State of Kuwait. Intifada is an ode to the civil uprisings in the Middle Eastern region. The Intifada was a sustained series of armed protests and riots from 1987 to 1993. The conflicts resulted in the death of thousands, damage to infrastructure and cultural loss. Notably, both paintings were painted while the conflict was ongoing and are also explorations of how Aleiby relates to the conflicts that had happened in her birth country of Iraq while she was not physically present in the country.

BIO
Afifa Aleiby (b. 1953) studied at the Institute of Arts in Baghdad, where she was taught by Iraqi masters such as sculptor Miran Al Saadi and painter Rasul Alwan. In 1974, she received a scholarship from Surikov Institute and lived in Moscow for six years, where she was close to other Iraqi intellectuals. After the completion of her studies, she was unable to return to Iraq due to the political situation there, and moved between Italy, Moscow and Yemen, where she worked as a teacher at the Institute of Fine Arts in Aden. Since the mid-1990s, Aleiby has been living and working in the Netherlands.

INFORMATION

  • Gulf War. 1991. Oil on canvas. 100 x 70 cm. Collection of Rana Sadik and Samer Younis.
  • Intifada. 1989. Oil on canvas. 150 x 150 cm. Collection of Rana Sadik and Samer Younis.