Interview 

Conjuring Colours, Tastes and Smells: Amman-based painter Ali Al Tajer

Ali Al Tajer is an Iraqi painter and art historian. Trained as a draughtsman at the College of Fine Arts at the University of Baghdad, Al Tajer worked as an illustrator for magazines and newspapers in Iraq. Al Tajer’s academic research was focused on the portrayal of ancients myths, human and animal motifs in the…
Event, Exhibition 

Calling Calouste: New Iraqi Photography at the Gulbenkian Building, Baghdad

Ruya has commissioned ‘Calling Calouste’, an exhibition of new Iraqi photography. The show will be held at the Ministry of Culture’s Gulbenkian Building in Baghdad that opens on 1 October. The exhibition, conceived by Ruya’s Iraq Director, Furat al Jamil, in close collaboration with the artists, brings together young, emerging and established photographers from across…
Interview 

Reviving Iraq’s ancient crafts: interview with the artist Rashad Salim

Rashad Salim is an Iraqi-German artist and designer based in London. His project, Ark Re-Imagined, aims to build a functional and floating vessel that re-imagines Noah’s Ark, using indigenous ancient boat making techniques. The artist has been working with local craftspeople across Southern Iraq in this project. In May 2016, Salim was awarded a grant…