BIOGRAPHY

​

As a Kurdish American, I’ve experienced the cultural complexities of two distinctive worlds. I have begun to explore the psychological pain and conflict associated with my past, paving the road to a freedom of expression. My work takes a root in my own personal emotional distress and psychological trauma that still lies in my subconscious, where thoughts and memories are often repressed or sublimated. I portray figures etched with sorrow, struggles and the suffering of everyday life in my compositions. Juxtaposing political situations particularly in Kurdistan of Iraq and Syria. My current body of work deals with the political circumstances in Kurdistan that remain neglected to the western world, shaping our contemporary society today. I am interested in looking at war through those Western eyes, and creating fantastical Sci-Fi paintings and drawings. Through these constructed worlds, with the kitschy fantasy characters of my childhood, I explore the real-world political conditions we are facing today. By constructing space into bizarre Sci-Fi worlds, landscapes and architecture becomes unrecognizable, and thus, confuses the viewer’s perception of reality. In terms of my process, I create small-scale dioramas in my studio and generate ideas from what I photograph as reference material to create my paintings and drawings. My work is set into fantastical narratives; strong undercurrents of emotion combined with murky narratives of terror, the loss and destruction and reflect a disjointed sense of unease in an unpredictable world.