Dia Al-Azzawi

Born Baghdad, Iraq, 1939

Al-Azzawi graduated in archaeology from the University of Baghdad, 1962, and in fine arts from the Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad, 1964. In 1969 he formed the art group ‘New Vision’ with some of his contemporaries, among them Rafa al-Nasiri, Mohammed Muhriddin, Ismail Fattah, Hashem al-Samarchi and Saleh al-Jumaie. He later joined the ’One Dimension’ group started by Shakir Hassan al-Said, while remaining close to ‘New Vision’ until 1972. Al-Azzawi’s work includes paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings as well as books in which visual art interacts with prose and poetry. He has exhibited extensively in the Middle East, North Africa, the United States, India, Brazil and Europe, including a retrospective exhibition Dia Azzawi at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, 2002. He has received several awards, among them first prizes at the International Summer Academy, Salzburg,Austria, 1975, and at the First Arab Contemporary Art Exhibition,Tunis, 1981, as well as the Jury Prize at the International Cairo Biennial, 1992. Al-Azzawi moved to London in 1976, where he worked as an art consultant at the Iraqi Cultural Centre, 1977–80. A prominent artist of the Iraq school, al-Azzawi also plays an important role in the promotion of Iraqi and Arab art to wider audiences, notably through numerous exhibitions of his contemporaries and publications. He lives and works in London.