Rushdi Anwar

Rushdi Anwar is a Melbourne-based artist originally from Kurdistan. Currently, he is working between Australia and Thailand. His work often reflects on the socio-political issues of Kurdistan, Iraq and the Middle East. He poetically draws from personal experience and memory concerning contemporary issues of displacement, identity, conflict, trauma and the impact of colonialism. . Based on his background as a Kurd who has lived through recent violence of the region, his works reference both recent and historical geopolitical unrest to generate discourse about the status of social equity. His installation, sculpture, painting, photography and video practice recalls the everyday plight of socio-political persecution.

Rushdi have degrees from the Institute of Kirkuk-Kurdistan, and the Enmore Design Centre in Sydney; further completing a Masters of Fine Art, and a Doctorate of Philosophy Art (PhD), at RMIT University in 2016.

He has held solo and group exhibitions widely in Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, France, Japan, Kurdistan, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and USA. Recent exhibitions include: Project “Intercambio”, 13th Havana Biennial 2019, Cuba. The National 2019: New Australian Art, (AGNSW). MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Chiang Mai, Thailand (2019). “52 artists 52 actions”, Artspace Sydney (2019). 12th Gwangju Biennale 2018, South Korea. “Temporary Certainty” 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney (2018). Project: “What’s left behind”, 21st Biennale of Sydney 2018, MCA, Australia.