“I create exhibitions that revolve around peace, hope, and humanity, building bridges and bridging the differences between all people. All of us are one. We are equal on this globe, and there is an abundance of treasure.”
Qais-Al Sindy has had an extraordinary journey as an artist. His visceral, textured paintings recall tales and memories of his life in Iraq with overarching themes of connectedness.
He cites his practice as a balance between the two paths of creating and marketing work with a message. The expressive nature of his work is inspired by De Kooning and eras of Picasso’s work - with a particular focus on the painting’s ability to sustain its own narrative.
After moving to the US, Qais Al-Sindy noted that his background, when coupled with the contemporary style he employs creates, “a recipe of something different.” “Western people receive such a recipe with the desire to discover the other. Such desire would create a dialogue and the dialogue is what we need. I always say these bridges between people are like a net on our globe and this net will make this globe one…People are eager to listen to stories, tales, memories despite living in the time of the picture. Paintings are a poor entity to compare to the digital image, but paintings represent and express themselves by saying something different to provoke the viewers. [They’re] loaded with stories. I connect to my collectors through the stories I represent.”
What enables dialogues to take place is a variety of mediums exhibited across a variety of venues. Qais open-mindedly pursues exhibiting opportunities at many kinds of institutions and welcomes the change of scenery. He also works multi-disciplinarity, employing performance, installations, and video art where applicable.
The pacing of Qais’s practice is in constant flow. He leads a full life, splitting his time between reading, tennis, travel, and creation. Perhaps as a result, he spoke about never being encumbered by creative blocks because as a professional, he can “turn anything [he] touches into art.” He’s mainly inspired to create work with the intention of connecting people as he feels that, “in this globalized world we’re living in, I feel we are living in a very small village. And since we are like neighbors living in a very small village, we have to love and respect each other. All these conflicts, wars, and bad things are happening right now…because we don’t love each other.“
