Young Collectors Auction - exhibit-E

RiyadhNEAMA1968Lot 059'Keyhole 2' Signed, Dated75 X 35 cm. Multiple Technique on Canvas 2010Estimate (US$ 2,000 - 3,000)Born in Baghdad in 1968, Riyadh Neama is an Iraqi artist who was forced into exile in 1998.Relocating to Syria, he began exhibiting in the Damascus art scene, where he developed afollowing among critics and collectors. Originally from southern Iraq, Neama graduated fromBaghdad University’s Faculty of Fine Arts. In Syria he found an intellectual environmentthat encouraged a new direction in his work, namely a break from the traditional symbolistcompositions that were popular among Iraqi artists for over thirty years. From the 1990son, he has employed an expressionist style that often relates back to the political strifeof his native country. Exhibiting throughout the Middle East and in Europe, he has beenfeatured at Rafia Gallery in Syria and Courtyard Gallery in Dubai and has had his workreviewed in Timeout Dubai and Forward Magazine.Describing a key element of his most recent works, which include a series of paintingsdepicting the children of war-torn Iraq amidst the streets of fragmented Baghdad, Neamaexplains “‘I’m always trying to show the relationship between stasis and movement, betweena still life and a moving life.” These children in motion symbolize a particular resilience andstand as defiant witnesses to war.