artist profile
Ahmed Alsoudani
born
1975
lives and works
New York, USA
education
MFA, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, USA, 2008
about the artist
A common starting point in understanding the art of Ahmed Alsoudani is to delve into his personal history as a victim of global politics. A native of Iraq, the artist finds his unique brand of expression out of the impulse to depict the atrocities of war and portray the imagery of torment. Drawing is superimposed on painting, which is then subverted again by drawing—Alsoudani thus creates a contorted waltz between the two in his pictures that achieve a universal resonance, extending far beyond time and place. Violence, through his eyes and under his hand, emerges an indistinct supernova of mass that is both material and immaterial, a paradox not unlike the ultimately convoluted, ambivalent relationship between man and war. Currently residing in New York, the artist was one of five representatives in the Iraqi Pavilion at the 54th edition of the Venice Biennale. He has shown at some of the most prestigious art venues in the world, such as the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minneapolis, USA; the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar; and the Pinault Foundation at Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Italy. Heavily reviewed by major art publications, he also had a monograph published by Hatje Cantz in 2009.