Sadik Kwaish Alfraji (Iraqi, b. 1960)

Iraqi artist Sadik Alfraji combines art and philosophy as a means of expanding the formulistic and conceptual boundaries of his aesthetic. Much of his work explores the expressionistic intensity of the graphic form, with a focus on the ideas and concepts of human existence. The artist’s mixed media compositions, inhabited by shadowy figures and faceless bodies, speak to the artist’s experience of exile, loss and fragmentation. Once I Could Fly, is part of a series of the same name which features hunched, silhouette-like figures with well-defined heads and limbs, poignantly engaging with the contrasting environment surrounding them.