DUBAI.- Zawyeh Gallery has announced it will be hosting an exhibition by the renowned Iraqi artist Afifa Aleiby from 26 February until 8 May 2023. The exhibition titled “Timeless Echoes” will include some of her latest artworks echoing her own life and tackling multiple societal and humane subjects.
Aleiby’s style is poetic, and her paintings have a unique quality of beauty mixed with the intensity of emotions. Her work is a reflection on women's state in society even though she stresses that she does not intend it to convey “a feminist statement” although it “may at times be related to women’s issues”.
She adds: “I use the female figure as a medium to help communicate this idea. Women as human figures have something special that you cannot find in men: the way they move and their beauty.”
Women appear elegantly despite the subject of the work. There is a certain kind of beauty and serenity that envelopes their existence on Aleiby’s canvas. The variety of subjects she tackles expresses her life and own experience. Nada Shabout, the Iraqi renown art historian, notes: “At the first glance, Afifa’s work rattles the viewer with its intimacy. One cannot escape the uneasiness of entering a personal space. Afifa’s vibrant colors and the elegant lines of her figures are self-reflective. In response to her physical displacements, the space of the painting becomes her ultimate home.”
Aleiby was born in Basra in 1953 and comes from an affluent family that nurtured her artistic practice, which was regarded as quite unconventional at the time. She studied at Baghdad’s renowned Institute of Fine Arts and lived in several places including Yemen, Moscow, and Florence. Her style is influenced a great deal by Russian and Italian art.
Aleiby went back to Iraq after years in exile but could not live there despite longing for her homeland. The features of the place have changed drastically after the war.
