Farouk Kaspaules is an

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

i-born

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

of Assyrian origin, noted for his engravings and silk-screen photography.

Life and career

Born in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

, Kaspaules left Iraq in the mid-1970s for political reasons. After a brief stay in the United States, he chose Canada as his country of exile and settled in Ottawa. He received his art education at the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

, graduating in 1989 with Bachelor degrees in Fine Arts and Art History. He has contributed to the arts community in Canada through his active involvement in artist-run centres and community organizations. He mixes traditional Arabic iconography with modern symbols to produce works that reflect themes of exile, cultural displacement and related social issues.

Work

Kaspaules works in oils and mixed media. He also executes engravings and silk-screen photography. During his first European exhibition in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, in 1993, he established links with other exiled artists from the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, specifically from

. These encounters led to a turning point in his artistic production, which became more politically explicit. In 2001, Kaspaules's installation ''…and at night we leave our dreams on window sill, memory of a place'' (2000) was included in the major exhibition ''The Lands within Me: Expressions by Canadian Artists of Arab Origin'', which opened at the

Canadian Museum of History The Canadian Museum of History () is a national museum on anthropology, Canadian history, cultural studies, and ethnology in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The purpose of the museum is to promote the heritage of Canada, as well as support related res ...

soon after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

. In 2016, Kaspaule exhibited works in ''There’s Room: Ottawa Artists Respond to the Refugee Crisis'', held at Gallery 101. Kaspaules has participated in some 20 solo and collective exhibitions in Canada, England,

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

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and

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Solo exhibitions

* 1993- ''A Personal Memory,'' Kufa Gallery, London, England * 1995 - ''Non Sequitur'' * 2000 - ''The Lands Within Me – Memory of a Place'' * 2003 - ''State of Things'' * 2003 - ''The 9th International Cairo Biennale,'' Cairo, Egypt * 2004 - ''Crossing Borders'' * 2005 - ''Traces'' * 2006 - ''Iconoclast'' * 2007 - ''Be/Longing'' Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa, Canada * 2008 - ''Inhabitants,'' Centre d'exposition L'Imagier, Aylmer, Quebec''Eventful,'
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaspaules, Farouk Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Artists from Baghdad Iraqi Assyrian people Iraqi emigrants to Canada Iraqi Christians Canadian people of Assyrian descent University of Ottawa alumni

Life and career

Work

Solo exhibitions

See also

References