Mosquito Effects

Meem Gallery presents an exhibition of new work by the acclaimed Iraqi artist Mahmoud Obaidi.

Speaking truth to power has never been something Mahmoud Obaidi has shied away from in hiswork. The artist was introduced to the notion of injustice from his adolescence, and has since spentmuch of his life processing the destruction of his homeland andthe isolation of exile. At the sametime, he has found commonality in the suffering of a myriad of communities around the world whohave also faced the brutal force of racism, occupation and inconceivable loss. In creating art whichconfronts these complexissues, Obaidi looks beyond simplistic politics and perceptions of identity,instead seeking to uncover and understand trauma from a historical, structural and geographical lens.As with much of Obaidi’s oeuvre, this latest body of work is made up of a multitude of layers whichlie behind the external, visible yet abstract structures, shapes and colour, revealing a visual inquirywhich goes far beyond the difficult topics which he seeks to tackle-namely colonisation andgenocide-and simultaneously forces him to look within and explore his own personal sense ofdisplacement