Painter

Yousif Naser has always painted. As a child, he painted for his friends at school, and decided this was all he ever wanted to do. Born in Amara, a port on the River Tigris in Southern Iraq, Yousif grew up surrounded by beautiful lakes and marshland. These unique romantic landscapes produced an abundance of creatures that he befriended as a boy, providing memories to inform his later work. Yousif continued painting into his teenage years, despite pressure from his family to find work or attend university. So, at an early age, Yousif left home to follow his artistic dream. With little support, he endeavoured to master his passion, sleeping rough under the streetlights of Baghdad whilst attending the Capital’s Academy of Fine Arts. 

In 1979, when Saddam Hussein came into power in Iraq, Yousif’s father died. Yousif was forced into exile and fled first to Syria and then Lebanon. From here, he moved to Cyprus for six years, until his residency was revoked after the invasion of Kuwait. Yousif then spent four years in Europe until eventually finding peace in England in 1990. Now aged 54, Yousif feels he is only just beginning his artistic journey.

Over the years, Yousif has adopted and developed a contemporary abstract style. Inspired by German expressionists like Anselm Kiefer, Yousif explores his country’s history through paint.  His work often carries important symbols loaded with meaning for the people of Iraq, such as the rogue dog and the fish. From sun-baked mud houses and blossoming fruit trees, to bombing planes and empty soulless eyes, Yousif’s work depicts love and endurance, loss and destruction. Mirroring not only his own life, but also that of his people.

Yousif employs lush and layered mixed media and vibrant colours to highlight the complexity of his experience. The urgency of his brush strokes express pure emotion, erupting with an intense and painful energy, which combined with a skilful use of chiaroscuro, reflects a life of uncertainty spent in exile. To Yousif, no one can understand the gravity of exile until they experience it. Every morning, he begins a painting using black and dark tones, as represents his status and feeling. To escape the darkness, and to connect with light, hope and happiness, Yousif brings in colour, sweeping the canvas with layer upon layer of vibrant paint. 

Yousif Naser’s unique collection portrays the full spectrum of human emotion, borne out of a life defined by great tragedy, endurance and inspiration, set against a backdrop of war and conflict in the Middle East. In expressing this life of extremes on canvas, Yousif proves through painting just how much the human soul can endure, whilst simultaneously remaining true and untarnished. His paintings are not only a colourful and vibrant telling of the artist’s emotional journey, but are also a celebration of the human spirit and our universal ability to survive.