Exile and the Mentor-student Relationship: A Force for Resistance and Decolonization

This small exhibition features work in reproduction by Iraqi artists Hanaa Malallah and Mohammed Karim, as well as an original painting by Karim. Both Malallah and Karim were significantly influenced by their mentors during and after their training in Iraq, and continue to share their work and ideas with a new generation today.

In the United States, Iraq is typically spoken about in a passive position: colonized, under despotic rule, occupied. Post-occupied. Through connections between mentors and students, and students who became mentors to new students, Iraqi artists have been a force for anti-colonialism, claiming their heritage and its future for themselves.

View the exhibit Monday-Friday in the Fine Arts Library, Tappan Hall, 855 S. University Ave.

A companion online exhibit, Tracing Iraqi Artists: From Shadow to Light, explores modern Iraqi struggle and resistance through contemporary visual art and connection to Iraqi artists and educators. The student curators of the online exhibit, Zainab Hakim and Serena Safawi, hope to center surviving Iraqi artists as they explore their national and artistic identities and respond to the cycles of violence caused by the Iran-Iraq war, sanctions, and occupation.