Alaa Siraih

Born Basra, Iraq.BA Painting, Academy of Fine Arts, Baghdad 1989. Worked as a theatre designer at the Baghdad National Theatre. Has exhibited widely in Iraq, the Middle East and Europe. Living and working in London since 1998.In my paintings, I try to discover and to study the city in order to change its characters, in an attempt to radicalize it and to grant it a unique artistic and visual identity despite the diversity of the surrounding atmospheres. Cities have their own memories, history, ways and labyrinths. I did not try to reflect the city as it is, but catching it through a visual access and changing it through art into a utopia with its own symbols and senses along with my own feelings towards it as a scene with an ambiguous meaning. I dealt with it as a product of the past. From this perspective, the city seems to be a pure and a happy place. In this respect it serves as a cover, a container of the past keeping all the old impossible dreams inside. This is turning it for me into a source of sorrow, remembrances and real figures. The other view concerns the city as it is now, in the present time, along with its reality and sufferings. The city I am trying to portrait is a mixture of the past and the present, a mixture of ...

2024 Iraqi fine artist group show in London Britain
2023 Iraqi fine artists association in Britain
2010 become a resident of the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris

2009 Cityscapes A&C gallery, London

Solo Exhibitions2008 Cityscapes A&C gallery, London2001 Talisman & Symbols, Kufa Gallery, London1983 Basryatha, Basra, IraqGroup Exhibtions2007 Christmas @ Art-Group exhibition of inhouse artists AC Gallery, London2007 Group Shows, Iraqi culture , Berlin, Germany 2007 Birdsofwar, CANDID ARTS TRUST, LONDON2006 Group Shows, A&C gallery, London2005 Group Shows, London2004 Body, Soul and Seed, London2004 New Spring, ANO Atelier Germany2004 Group Shows, AYA Gallery, London2003 Group Shows, Cafe Gallery, London2003 Expressions of hope, AYA Gallery, London2003 before.after.now: Visions of Iraq, Deluxe Gallery, Hoxton Square, London 2002 Group Shows, Tablit Gallery, London.2002 & 2000 Irakische Kulturtage, Lubeck, Germany . 1999 Youth Artists, ANO Atelier, Lubek, Germany 1993 Azal, Brussels1992 Alhathar International Festival, Baghdad1991 Babylon International Festival, Baghdad1991 & 1989 Iraqi Landscapes, Art Centre, Baghdad .1988-93 Group Shows, Art Centre, Baghdad ,