Brush Strokes Gallery to feature works by internationally recognized artist from Iraq | Entertainment

In a demonstrate titled “Crossroads: Where East Meets West,” which was born from Al Samarrai’s motivation to showcase his Center Eastern lifestyle beside the no cost-flowing American landscape, visitors will see 18 of his paintings. Most are for sale, but a number of hail from own collections and are getting displayed specifically for the show.

Penny Parish, gallery president, reported she was specially amazed by his flexibility, but also his capability to seize the entire world as it exists in his own medium.

“Art, like tunes, is a universal language,” she said. “You do not have to know words and phrases to appreciate talent and natural beauty. We hope website visitors see that in Hashim’s get the job done.”

The show will be displayed by means of July 31. It will open with a Very first Friday reception on July 1 from 5 to 9 p.m. The artist is envisioned to attend.

The will work chosen for the show are painted in oils and acrylics in his distinctive style of reasonable scenes with expressionistic shades, lush textures and playful gentle. Iraq’s historic techniques of existence, which have constantly been tied to the land, could be disappearing, but Al Samarrai has revived them in paintings these types of as “Streets of Previous Baghdad” and functions that express the lonely issues of the desert, these kinds of as “Man of the Desert” and “Resting Location.”

His travels in the United States have served as a beacon of hope and healing for him. In “Virginia Gold,” he captures the splendor of a sunset around the river, while “Sunrise” conveys the hope of a new working day.

Al Samarrai hopes that his “Crossroads” show will express the concept that, “while Iraqi and American cultures may vary on the surface area, a shared heart of resilience and frequent humanity beats at their core and we can understand the attractiveness in the ‘other.’”

A guest exhibitor to the gallery, Al Samarrai’s paintings have been featured in various American and Middle Eastern galleries and his commissions are observed in own collections all through the earth.

He is a lifelong college student of artwork, but also of historical past, and Al Samarrai has generally found inspiration in Iraqi heritage and aged traditions. He and his work have borne witness as back-to-back again wars wrecked the cultural heritage and organic methods of Iraq.

He graduated initial in his class from the Baghdad Institute of Great Arts in 1991, just immediately after the Gulf War. During the crushing financial sanctions that followed the war, canvas and paint had been difficult to obtain. So, he fashioned canvasses out of worn cloth, stretched and painted with makeshift white paint. He was in a position to harness the inherent roughness of his home made canvasses to create loaded texture and depth in his paintings.

His really like of texture started lengthy prior to that, however. Al Samarrai was born in Samarra, Iraq in 1969, just one of ten children. He explained understanding he was an artist by age a few, always with a pen and paper in hand. He was once so taken by the way the mild strike his eggs in the early morning, he ran to get his pencils and fully forgot to take in.

When reflecting on his profession as an artist, but particularly all through the earlier 19 war-torn yrs, Hashim stated, “Unquestionably, portray breathes air into my lungs and lets me to individual myself from my bitter environment and remain optimistic. It enables me to push ahead amidst a life marred by concern, debilitating uncertainty, and terror. Like a delicate butterfly, portray gives me wings robust more than enough to float higher than the chaos. I desire and work towards opportunities to crack the chains that tether me from increasing my talent and sharing my items with the environment.”