AHMED ALSOUDANI / MATRIX 165

September 6, 2012 – January 6, 2013

Download the MATRIX 165 Exhibition Brochure.

The tumultuous paintings by artist Ahmed Alsoudani imagine horrific experiences of the current war in Iraq. In reality, the artist grew up in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) before fleeing to the United States in 1999.

In MATRIX 165, the chaotic imagery of Alsoudani’s large-scale canvases reveal violence, devastation, and carnage in wildly active compositions. In a technique using equal parts vibrantly-colored acrylic paint and expressive charcoal drawing, distorted figures and grotesque beasts emerge from surreal landscapes to communicate a universal understanding of human conflict and infinite suffering.

In December 2012 Alsoudani was a guest on art journalist Tyler Green’s Modern Art Notes podcast. In the second segment (below), Alsoudani and Green discuss the iconography in his paintings and the importance of biography in interpreting an artist’s work.

Listen to The Modern Art Notes Podcast: Caravaggio; Alsoudani

MATRIX 165 is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and The Dedalus Foundation, Inc. The MATRIX program is supported by the members of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art’s Contemporary Coalition.