Aichi Triennial 2025, Japan
One of the gallery spaces in the Arts Center is dedicated to Iraqi artist Bassim Al Shaker’s heartbreakingly beautiful canvases, “Sky Revolution” (2023) and new pieces “Allegory of the Sky” and “New Birth.” The former renders scenes witnessed by Al Shaker following bombings during the Iraq War in 2003, meant to evoke the simultaneous cataclysmic rupture and frozen silence of the sky during aerial bombardment.
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Four Minutes, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
Rhona Hoffman Gallery is pleased to present our first solo exhibition with Chicago-based Iraqi artist Bassim Al Shaker, titled Four Minutes. The exhibition consists of new wall and ceiling mounted oil paintings that abstractly refer to the artist’s experience during various periods of political and humanitarian turmoil in his home country of Iraq.
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Documenta, Germany 2022
For documenta fifteen, Sahakian invited former participants of Sada to produce video work reflecting on their practice and where they are today. The participating artists are Sajjad Abbas, Bassim Al Shaker, Layth Kareem, Ali Eyal, Raed Mutar, Sarah Munaf, and Sahakian herself. The videos have been compiled into an anthology film to screen at and beyond the 100 days of the exhibition in Kassel.
This particular form was chosen to produce a visualization of Iraqi from artists who were committed to working through the aftermath of American-led wars and occupation. The participants raise important questions as to how artists survive in the aftermath of US-led wars and occupation, with minimal supportive infrastructures, inclusion in regional and critical dialogues, or opportunities for the development of their practice.
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Venice Biennale 2013
One of the youngest artists in the exhibition, Bassim Al-Shaker (b. 1986, Baghdad, Iraq) is stylistically one of its most traditional, making oil paintings that would very much impress his teachers at the local academy. Eschewing any sign of avant-gardism he paints scenes of the southern marshlands, suggesting a lifestyle there of unbroken tradition. The recent reality is very different, of course, this being a place that suffered terribly during Saddam’s dictatorship. While perhaps not straightforwardly documentary, Al-Shaker’s series reveals a side of Iraq’s landscape that even many Iraqis have never seen first-hand.
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Art Basel, Miami 2021 / 2022 / 2023 / 2024
Chicago’s Rhona Hoffman gallery offered one last unexpected thrill in the form of Basim Al-Shaker’s cosmic psychedelia. The largest and most impressive of these canvases Ablution and Absolution (2022), exerted an undeniable visual magnetism that seemed to embody the old-fashioned value of “wall power.” Though drawn from the Iraqi-born artist’s experiences during the American invasion and its aftermath Al-Shaker’s canvases exude a sense of generation and joy. The painter has described his work as capturing the momentary elation upon recognizing that one has survived a bomb blast. For viewers fortunate not to share this experience, the vermillion flames and swirling green and yellow vapor emanating from surrounding darkness might recall instead nebulae, the birth of stars, even the first moments of the universe. The straightforward, visually arresting joy Al-Shaker wrenches from loss was a jarring but welcome shock amidst the unending sea of white temporary walls.
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Selected Exhibitions
2025
Aichi Trienniale, Japan
2024
Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami Beach, FL
2023
2023 Art Basel in Miami Beach, Miami Beach, FL
Barbershop (Sada [Regroup]), 22nd Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil
Solo Exhibition, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL
Barbershop (Sada [Regroup]) Screening and discussion, e-flux Screening Room, Brooklyn, NY
EXPO Chicago 2023, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
Group Exhibition, Surviving the Long the Wars, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
2022
2022 Art Basel in Miami Beach, Miami Beach, FL
SAIC Art Auction 2022, School of the Art Institute of Chicago SAIC Galleries, Chicago, IL
Barbershop, Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, Jihlava, Czech Republic
2022 MOCAD Gala + Art Auction, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI
Barbershop (Sada [Regroup]), documenta fifteen, Kassel, Germany
Group Exhibition, Eye-diolect: Susanne Doremus selects, Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
2021
Solo Exhibition, Human Crumbs, FLXST Contemporary, Chicago, IL
Art Miami 2021, Art Miami, Miami, FL
Beaux Arts Fundraiser, Scottsdale Artists’ School, Scottsdale, AZ
Group Exhibition, Untamable Magic, Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
2020
Group Exhibition, FACE to FACE, Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
Beaux Arts Fundraiser, Scottsdale Artists’ School, Scottsdale, AZ
2019
Beaux Arts Fundraiser, Scottsdale Artists’ School, Scottsdale, AZ
Solo Exhibition, One Year of Loss, Green Leaf Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
Group Exhibition, Green Leaf Gallery Winter Show, Green Leaf Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
2018
Beaux Arts Fundraiser, Scottsdale Artists’ School, Scottsdale, AZ
Art from the Heart Auction, Free Arts for Abused Children, Phoenix, AZ
Going Once! Contemporary Forum Art Auction, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
2017
Art from the Heart Auction, Free Arts for Abused Children, Phoenix, AZ
Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show, WestWorld of Scottsdale, Scottsdale, AZ
2016
2016 Art Basel in Miami Beach, Miami Beach, FL
Arabian Breeders World Cup, South Point Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, NV
Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show, WestWorld of Scottsdale, Scottsdale, AZ
2015
Contemporary Forum Art Auction, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Solo Exhibition, I Saw You in My Dreams, Bentley Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show, WestWorld of Scottsdale, Scottsdale, AZ
2014
Solo Exhibition, Current Work, 720 Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
Group Exhibition, Down_Under_Side, ASU Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
Group Exhibition, Welcome to Iraq, South London Gallery, London, England
2013
Group Exhibition, To Sleep, with Life…, ASU Art Museum Combine Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
Group Exhibition, Beyond the Cloth, White Box Projects, New York, NY
Venice Biennale, Iraqi Pavilion, Venice, Italy