CV
1939
Born in Baghdad, Iraq
1962
BA in Archaeology, Baghdad University, Baghdad
1964
Diploma in Fine Arts, Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1965
Al-Wasiti Gallery, Baghdad
1966; 1969
Gallery One, Beirut
1967
Iraqi Artists’ Society, Baghdad
1968; 1970; 1971; 1975
National Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad
1969; 1971; 1977
Sultan Gallery, Kuwait
1973
Arslan Raad Gallery, Tripoli (Lebanon)
1975
Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad
1974
Contact Gallery, Beirut
1976
Gallery Nadar, Casablanca
1978
Patrick Seale Gallery, London
Al-Riwaq Gallery, Baghdad
1980; 1983
Galerie Faris, Paris
1980
Galerie Centrale, Geneva
1982
Intercontinental Hall, Abu Dhabi
1983
National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature, Kuwait
1984; 1990; 1993
Alif Gallery, Washington, DC
1985
Hotel Meridien Abu Dhabi
1986
Royal Cultural Centre, Amman
1988
Galerie Claudine Planque, Lausanne
1990
Galleri Nakita, Stockholm
Vanazff Gallery, Gothenburg
1991
Galerie 50x70, Beirut
1992
Gallery Hittite, Toronto
Flandria Gallery, Tangier
1994
Al-Manar Gallery, Casablanca
Abaad Gallery, Amman
Galerie 50x70, Beirut
Al-Sayed Gallery, Damascus
1995; 2004; 2006; 2009; 2012; 2013; 2014; 2015; 2017; 2018
Galerie Claude Lemand/ Espace Claude Lemand, Paris
1996
Art Centre, Bahrain
2001
Retrospective Exhibition, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
2003
Cité du Livre, Aix-en-Provence
2006
Kalemmat Gallery, Aleppo
4 Walls Gallery, Amman
Dar Al-Funun Gallery, Kuwait
2009
Retrospective of Paintings, ADMAF, Sixth Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival, Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi
2009; 2015; 2016; 2018; 2021
Meem Gallery, Dubai
2016
I am the Cry, Who Will Give voice to Me? From 1963 until tomorrow: Dia al-Azzawi, a retrospective, Al Riwaq Gallery and Mathaf Museum, Doha, Qatar
2017
Karim Gallery, Amman
2018
Azzawi, Sabra and Shatila Massacres, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (with Galerie Claude Lemand)
2020
Art Dubai Portrait Exhibitions (online)
2021
The Lebanon Works, Meem Gallery, Dubai
SOLO BOOTHS
1981
Galerie Faris at Basel Art Fair, Basel (Switzerland)
Galerie Faris at FIAC, Paris
2004
Galerie Claude Lemand at St’Art, Strasbourg (France)
2011
Elegy to My Trapped City, Meem Gallery at Abu Dhabi Art
2013
Bilad al-Sawad and Other Works: 1978–2011, Galerie Claude Lemand at Art Paris
2014
Selected Works: 1964–1973, Meem Gallery at Frieze Art Fair, London
2015
Galerie Claude Lemand at Armory Show, New York City
2016
Mission of Destruction, Meem Gallery at Abu Dhabi Art
2018
Dia al-Azzawi: Furniture Design, Mark Hachem Gallery at Beirut Design Fair
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Arab Monetary Fund, Abu Dhabi
Barjeel Art Foundation Collection, Sharjah
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
The British Museum, London
Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut
Fondation Colas, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris
Gulbenkian Collection, Lisbon
Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi
Hussein Ali Harba Family Collection, Milan
Ibrahimi Collection of Iraqi Fine Art, Amman
Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
Jeddah International Airport
Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman
Kinda Foundation, Saudi Arabia
Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA)
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha
Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad
Museum of Modern Art, Damascus
Museum of Modern Art, Tunis
Nabu Museum, Chekka, Lebanon
Ona Foundation, Casablanca
Saeb Eigner Private Collection, London
Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah
Tate Modern, London
The United Bank of Kuwait, London
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
The World Bank, Washington, DC
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1964; 1965; 1966
Annual Exhibition of Iraqi Artists’ Society, Baghdad
1966
Carrera Craven “A” Arab Art, Cairo; Manama; Kuwait; Baghdad; Amman; Damascus; Beirut; London, Paris; Rome
1968
First International Triennial, New Delhi
1971
Al-Marbid Poetry Festival, Basra
Contemporary Iraqi Art, Kuwait
Contemporary Arab Art, National Museum, Nicosia
1972
Al-Wasiti Festival, Baghdad
Fourth International Poster Biennale, Warsaw
1974
First Biennale of Arab Art, Baghdad
1975
Exposition de Gravures, L’Atelier, Rabat
Seventh International Painting Festival, Cagnes-sur-Mer
International Summer Academy, Salzburg
1976
Art Contemporain Irakien, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris
Artists against Racism, National Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad
Iraqi Pavilion, XXXVII Venice Biennale
Second Biennale of Arab Art, Rabat
1979
Iraqi Pavilion, XV Sao Paulo Biennale
1980
Sixth International Exhibition of Graphic Art, Rijeka (Yugoslavia)
Salon de Mai, Centre d'Art, Paris
Salon d’Automne, Galerie des Beaux Arts, Paris
Third World Biennale of Graphic Art, Iraqi Cultural Centre, London
L'Art Contemporain Arabe, Le Belvedere, Tunis
The Influence of Arabic Calligraphy on Modern Arab Artists, Iraqi Cultural Centre, London
1981
Peinture Irakienne Contemporaine, Centre Culturel Irakien, Paris
Salon de Mai, Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris
1982
Contemporary Arab Graphics, Grafitti Gallery, London
1983
Seventh International Grafik Triennial, Frechen (Germany)
1984
British International Print Biennial, Bradford (UK)
Exposition d’Art Contemporain Arabe, Centre d’Art Vivant de la Ville, Tunis
1985
Contemporary Arab Art, Blackman Harvey Gallery, London
Musée Hubert d’Uckerman, Grenoble (France)
1986
Salon Comparaisons, Grand Palais, Paris
Semitic Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Contemporary Arab Art, The Mall Gallery, London
The Norwegian International Print Biennale, Fredrikstad (Norway)
1987
Third International Biennial Exhibition, Taiwan
1988
Olympiad of Art, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
Three Artists: Azzawi, Jumaie, Nasiri, Kufa Gallery, London
1989
Contemporary Art from the Islamic World, Barbican Centre, London
Arab Graphic Art, National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature, Kuwait
Homage to Jawad Salim [sic], Kufa Gallery, London
La Caligrafia en la Pintura Arabe Contemporanea, Havana Biennale
1991
Belkhodja and Azzawi, Galerie des Arts, Tunis
Contemporary Iraqi Artists, Sheppard Contemporary Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno
1993
Asilah Arts Festival, Asilah (Morocco)
1994
Signes et Écritures, Institut du Monde Arabe, Poitiers (France)
Al-Chabbi and Azzawi, Galerie des Arts, Tunis
1997
Five Visual Interpretations, Green Art Gallery, Dubai
1998
Azzawi & Nasiri, Galerie La Teinturerie, Paris
2001
Machreq - Maghreb: Paintings and Books, Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris
2002
Azzawi and Fattah, Green Art Gallery, Dubai
Masters of Tondo, Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris
The Kinda Foundation Collection, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
2003
Fondation Colas, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris
Broken Letter, Contemporary Art from Arab Countries, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt
2005
Portraits of the Bird: Books and Drawings, Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris
Homage to Shafic Abboud, Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris
Improvisation: Seven Iraqi Artists, Bissan Gallery, Doha, Al-Riwaq Gallery, Manama, and 4 Walls Gallery, Amman
2005–08
Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art, University of North Texas Art Gallery, Denton, Texas; Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota; Minnesota Centre for Book Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota; University of Texas, El Paso, Texas; Daura Gallery, Lynchburg College, Lynchburg, Virginia
Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art, The Centre for Book Arts, New York; Minneapolis Athenaeum, Minneapolis, Minnesota; NIU Art Museum, DeKalb, Illinois; The Jaffe Centre for Book Arts, Boca Raton, Florida, Denison University, Granville, Ohio
2006
Portraits of the Bird, Festival of Arts, Bastia, Corsica
Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East, British Museum, London
2008
Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East, British Museum, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Dubai
Iraq’s Past Speaks to the Present, British Museum, London
Iraqi Artists in Exile, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas
Iraq: Reframe, Montalvo Arts Centre, Saratoga, California
2009
Modernism and Iraq, Columbia University, Wallach Art Gallery, New York
2010
Beyond the War, Leila Tachinia-Milani Heller Gallery, New York
My Homeland, Art Sawa, Dubai
Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha
Interventions: A Dialogue Between the Modern and the Contemporary, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha
2011
Art in Iraq Today: Part IV, Meem Gallery, Dubai
Art in Iraq Today: Conclusion, Beirut Exhibition Centre, Beirut
2012
Facing History: Dia Azzawi and Leon Golub, Tate Modern, London
Elegy To My Trapped City, Meem Gallery, Dubai
Masters of the Tondo; Arab Masterpieces, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris
Meem Projects 2012. Part 1: Letters in Art. Part 2: Modern Arab Art, Meem Gallery at Abu Dhabi Art
2013
Tajreed: A Selection of Arab Abstract Art, Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait
Re: Orient, Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah
Paintings, Sculpture and Projects Garden, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha
D’Orient et d’Occident, Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris
Meem Projects 2013. Part 1: Modern Arab Art. Part 2: Contemporary Arab Art – How Do You Sleep At
Night?, Meem Gallery at Abu Dhabi Art
2014
Arab Modernities; Landscape and Arab Modernity, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris
Children of Gaza, Meem Gallery, Dubai
2014; 2018–19
Portrait de l’Oiseau Qui N’Existe Pas, Museum of Issoudun; Maison des Arts, Ville d’Antony; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
2015
Modern Arab Masterpieces, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris
After Picasso: 80 Contemporary Artists, Wexner Center for Arts, The Ohio State University, USA.
Picasso and Contemporary Art, Deichtorhallen Hamburg
2016
The Sea Suspended, Barjeel Art Foundation at TMoCA, Tehran
Arab Modern Artists, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris
From East and West, Galerie Claude Lemand at Art Paris
2017
Tondo from East and West, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris
Tour du Monde en Tondo, Musée de l’Hospice Saint Roch, Issoudun (France)
From East, Afrika and West, Galerie Claude Lemand at Art Paris
2018
Baghdad Mon Amour, Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris
Guernica, Musée national Picasso-Paris, Paris
Sabra et Chatila, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
Millenia of Creativity, Nabu Museum, Batroun (Lebanon)
Keyword: Palestine, Dar El-Nimer, Beirut
I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria, British Museum, London
2019
Artists’ Tribute to Notre-Dame, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
A la plume, au pinceau, au crayon: dessins du monde arabe (Donation Claude & France Lemand), Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
Iraqisms, Dar El-Nimer, Beirut
Objects of Imagination, Jordan National Gallery of Fine Art, Amman
2019–20
Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991–2011, MoMA PS1, New York City
2020
Taking Shape: Abstraction from The Arab World, 1950s–1980s, Grey Art Gallery, New York City
Hope and Despair, Nabu Museum, Batroun (Lebanon)
Spotlights, Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait
Arab Art Today and Tomorrow, Meem Gallery at Abu Dhabi Art (virtual)
2021
8. Schweizerische Triennale der Skulptur, Bad Ragaz (Switzerland)
Between the Walls, Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait
Primaveral; Printmaking; Continuity, Karim Gallery, Amman