Quraish

Partly due to the vivid color combinations in Quraish’s work—which borders on a dreamlike vision—we are transported into an exhilarating world, a secret universe, full of mystical sounds drawn from the cultural history of Iraq, where the painter was born in 1966. Quraish draws his inspiration from the mozanek decorations in the five-thousand-year-old temples of Babylon, once the center of Mesopotamia. Quraish plays with these ancient motifs and breathes new life into them. According to the artist, the ancient myths that have been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years are still very much alive. He translates them into his own modern, abstract style. “I find the primitive world much more interesting than our world,” says Quraish. “This inspires me to explore the work of primitive ancestors.” His work clearly shows that he is also referring to African ancestors, given the influences in his work from African woodcarving traditions, such as masks, decorations, and symbols. Symbols that strongly remind him of the ancient Mesopotamian visual fragments in his homeland, through which he achieves a high level of abstract expression. To achieve the result he envisions, Quraish uses a refined technique along with various materials, such as metal, wood, paper, and glue, after which he finishes the painting with oil or acrylic paint and sometimes even rust to achieve the right color. For more antique and translucent colors, he opts for watercolor. Shortly after completing his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad in 1994, Quraish was forced to leave his homeland. Quraish held his first exhibition as early as 1992, in Spain, followed by exhibitions in Iraq, Tunisia, the Netherlands, France, and Germany.