AZAD KARIM

Azad Karim was born in 1954, Arbil, Kurdistan, Iraq. In 1976 he finished the study at the Institute of Visual Arts of Baghdad. Soon after he moved to the Republic of Slovenia, Yugoslavia. He decided to study painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Ljubljana, where he graduated in 1980. He completed his postgraduate studies in printmaking. He has been working as painter and printmaker in Slovenia until now.

After his training in Baghdad, he took courses in many different cultural cities in Europe, after which he finally settled in Slovenia. He has taken a part in many art workshops in Slovenia and other European Countries. In his art, he combines his eastern and western experience of the world. His artworks are fraught with impressions and symbols from both worlds. Karim’s joy of life and his admiration of the world, incorporated with extreme enthusiasm into his colour compositions full of symbols and signs, have gradually been troubled by hidden bitterness. Memories have become more and more powerful. Memories of a rocky and sandy landscape, still unusually mythical in its openness to the skies, memories of the powerful architecture which has been defying nature and man for centuries.

He has had many one-man exhibitions and he has taken part in a number of important group and international exhibitions. He received numerous prizes for his artwork. Azad Karim lives and works in Ajdovščina, Slovenia.