Sadik Kwaish Alfraji is an Iraqi multimedia artist who was born in Baghdad in 1960. He holds a diploma in Painting from the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and a BA in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts, which he completed in 1987. After his migration to the Netherlands, he also completed a High Diploma in Graphic Design in 2000. Sadik held several solo and group exhibitions across the world since the late 1980s, with one of his earliest solo exhibitions being hosted by Al Rawaq Gallery, one of Iraq’s most respected galleries at that time. Interestingly, his first ever exhibition was part of a larger group exhibition for small prints held in South Korea in 1984. After maintaining residence in the Netherlands, his exhibitions were mainly concentrated within that region, much like many other Iraqi artists who currently reside there, such as Nedim Kufi.
In line with his academic studies, Sadik Kwaish takes on painting as the main method in which he can rely the messages and ideas that occupied his mind and heart throughout his life, which he describes as an often fruitless tool to explore his own existence in relation to his past, present, and future:
I do not paint out of luxury, and do not seek beauty, but as an attempt to reason the world and myself. Yet, always, the result does not exceed a restless sort of crying.
