New exhibition from Iraqi artist who lived in desert hole

Halim's harrowing experiences have influenced his work Famed Iraqi artist, Halim Al Karim will show his first ever UK solo exhibition at ARTSPACE London next week. Al Karim’s work is a far cry from his humble beginnings. Halim endured a harrowing experience opposing Saddam Hussein’s regime and compulsory military service. The artist  was forced underground and hid in a hole in the desert.
“Witness From Baghdad” will showcase a collection of his work from 1985 – 2011. Halim Al Karim has created a style that conceals a vision of realities that are not often acknowledged within his society.Concerned with ongoing and unresolved issues in urban society, his striking works dwell on the evolving mentality, particularly related to violence. Al Karim’s creations strongly reflect the psychological desire to escape, as well as the ramifications of his dreams and his personal experience of love and war.
For Halim Al Karim, photography is the perfect medium in which to express himself.
“It retains anchors of our visual reality and can be manipulated to show altered states of mind. Compositionally out of focus, sometimes rendered more mysterious under a veil of silk,my photographs imply an uncertainty of context, time and place,
simultaneously embodying the past, present and future.”
ARTSPACE London will exhibit Witness From Baghdad from January 16 - February 23 2013