Abdalla Al Omari, Donald, 2016, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 190 x 150 cm
A selection of recent portraits by Abdalla Al Omari reimagine world leaders as disenfranchised or displaced civilians.
The images look familiar — despondent refugees standing in queues, hoping to find food, shelter, or a safe place to start a new life. But these are not the kind of refugees we see in media images. The forlorn figures in Abdalla Al Omari’s paintings from The Vulnerability Series, are powerful leaders. a dishevelled Donald trump, with a baby in his arms, holding what is left of his worldly possessions in a small plastic bag, and showing a picture of his lost family. Bashar Al Assad is seen as a distraught man, wading through a turbulent ocean, under an overcast sky, bewildered by his circumstances.
