- Zainab Abdulkarim – Visual Artist

Z A I N A B A B D U L K A R I M

V I S U A L A R T I S T

ABOUT

^{Art does not simply offer knowledge; it rearranges our relationship with what we believed we already knew.}

^{I think of my work through the idea of the trace. A trace is not a fragment of the past, nor a substitute for memory. It is what remains after disappearance—the quiet persistence of experience within material, the body, and perception. Even when stories can no longer be told, something continues to exist. It settles into surfaces, gestures, silences, and the ways we learn to see the world.}

^{Having grown up in the aftermath of war, I became aware that violence does not end with the event itself. It survives by altering perception. Fear and deprivation become ways of seeing long after their visible causes have vanished. What interests me is not the representation of conflict, but the invisible structures it leaves behind—those that continue to shape how we inhabit the present.}

^{My work begins where language reaches its limits. There are experiences that resist description yet remain present through matter. A weathered surface, an eroded edge, the weight of a form, or the tension between concealment and exposure can carry meanings that no narrative can fully contain. Material does not illustrate experience; it bears its imprint. It remembers differently from language.}

^{I do not make work to preserve the past or to explain it. I make work to ask what continues to remain when certainty, narrative, and memory begin to dissolve. If a work succeeds, it does not provide an answer. It alters perception. It asks the viewer to dwell longer with silence, to look more carefully at time, and to recognize that absence is never empty; it is inhabited by what continues to shape us.}

^{Each work reaches its completion when it no longer asks anything of me. Any further gesture would diminish the silence it has found. At that moment, it begins to speak with a voice that is no longer mine, and I become its first viewer. From there, the work carries its own life.}

CURRICULUM VITAE (CV)

_{BORN IN BAGHDAD, IRAQ. LIVES IN NORWAY}

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

^{Association of Norwegian Visual Artists (NBK}⁾

^{Association of Visual Artists Oslo and Akershus (BOA)}

EDUCATION

^{2012 Fine Arts, Nansenskolen – Norwegian Humanistic Academy, Lillehammer, Norway}

^{2008 Certificate of Participation in the Four-Week Human Rights Program, Australia}

^{2006 Diploma in Painting Restoration, Faculty of Restoration, Litomyšl College, Czech Republic}

^{1995 Bachelor of Fine Arts, College of Fine Arts, University of Baghdad}^{, Iraq}

^{1992 Diploma, Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad, Iraq}

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

^{2020– Pr}^{esent – Indep}^{endent Visual Artist}

^{2017– 2020 – Art Teacher, Kulturskole, Oslo, Norway (painting and ceramics courses}⁾

^{2015– 2017 – Painting Conservator, Foundation Porsgrunn Museums, City Museum, Norway}

^{2012– Painting Conservator, Telemark Museum, Skien, Norway}

^{2010– Painting Instructor, KIA (Christian Intercultural Work), Skien, Norway}

^{2010– Painting Instructor for adults, Kulturskole, Skien and Porsgrunn, Norway}

^{2005– Founder, Iraqi Art Encyclopedia; responsible for collecting and archiving Iraqi fine arts, Ministry of Culture, Baghdad, Iraq}

^{2004– 2008 – Gallery Director, Al-Wasiti Gallery, Ministry of Culture, Baghdad, Iraq}

^{2003– 2004 – Lecturer, Fine Arts Institute, Baghdad, Iraq}

^{2005– 2007 – Cover Designer, Noon Magazine}

^{1990– Illustrator and Columnist, Children’s Section, Aljamhorya Weekly Newspaper, Iraq}

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

^2014–^{Babylonian Revelation in Telemark}^{, Gallery Osebro, Porsgrunn, Norway}

^{2009– House of the Red Cross, Skien, Nor}^way

^{2008– French Cultural Centre, Baghda}^{d, Iraq}

^{2007– Czech Embassy, Baghdad, Iraq (Two Solo Ex}^hibitions)

^{1999– Iraqi Legends, Baghdad, Iraq}

^{1995– Transferring State, Baghdad Arts Center, Baghdad, Iraq}

^{1992– Experimental Art Gallery, Bagh}^{dad, Iraq}

^{1990– The Beginning of the Journey, Baghdad, Iraq}

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

^{Group exhibitions in Iraq, Norway, Italy, France, Poland, Finland, Jordan, Japan, and the Netherlands}

^{2023– Sommerutstilling, Galleri Zink, Lil}^{lehammer, Norway}

²⁰¹²^{– Gall}^{eri Zink, Lillehammer, Norway}

^{– Norwegian Literature Festival, Lillehammer, Norway}

^{2010– 2015 – Scholarship Exhibition, Skien, Norway}

^{2011– Art Auction for the Horn of Africa, Red Cross, Skien, Norway}

²⁰¹⁰^–^{Telemark Kunstnersenter, Skien, Norway}

^{– Ibsenhuset, Skien, Norway}

^{– The Samoranty Library, Rome, Italy}

^{2009– Ibsenhuset, Skien, Norway}

^{2008– Group Exhibition, Southern Italy}

^{– The Samoranty Library, Rome, Italy}

^{2007– Group Exhibition, Rome, Italy}

^{– Exhibition alongside Iraqi art pioneers Noori Al-Rawi and Abd Al-Jabar Al-Banna, with artist Zaid Adnan, French Cultural Centre / Hewar Gallery, Baghdad, Iraq}

^{– Organiz}^{ed and participated in a charity exhibition for International Human Rights Week, hosted by the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Baghdad, Iraq}

^{2004– Iraqi–Dutch Culture and Arts Forum, The Netherlands}

^{2003– Contempora}^{ry Iraqi Sculpture Exhibition (First Iraqi Sculpture Exhibition after the War), Baghdad, Iraq}

^{– Iraqi}^{–Jordanian Cultural Week}

^{2000– 3rd Baghdad International Festival of Visual Arts for Humankind}

AWARDS

²⁰⁰⁵^–^A^{ward, Magazine Cover Design Competition on Women’s Freedom and Equality, Ministry of Culture, Baghdad, Iraq}

^{– A}^{ward, Women, Freedom and Equality Competition, Ministry of Culture, Baghdad, in collaboration with UNIFEM}

²⁰⁰³^–^Aw^{ard, Art Makes Future Exhibition, for the poster Together Under the Wing of Peace}

²⁰⁰¹^–^S^{econd Prize, 13th Babylon Festival, Iraq}

²⁰⁰⁰^–^En^{couragement Award for Creativity, Ministry of Culture, Iraq}

^©^{Zainab Abdulkarim. All rights reserved.
All artworks, images, and texts created by Zainab Abdulkarim are protected by copyright. No reproduction, publication, distribution, modification, or use in any form or by any means is permitted without the artist’s prior written permission.}

^{_{This work explores the enduring imprint of war as it settles into memory—not as an event confined to the past, but as a presence that continues to shape who we are. Faces and fragments emerge through layers of time, where memory no longer exists as a complete narrative, but as traces that resist oblivion.
What remains of us is not what happened, but what time could never erase. Here, every fracture becomes an inscription, and every forgotten face continues to meet our gaze, etched in memory.}}

^{_{Look into My Eyes explores the fragile space between presence and disappearance. Faces emerge quietly from the remnants of a weathered wall, never fully revealing themselves, as memory shifts between what endures and what remains just beyond reach.} _{Rooted in the emotional aftermath of war, the work reflects on the gaze as a place where vulnerability and identity converge. Rather than telling a single story, it invites a quiet encounter between the viewer and the children whose faces slowly emerge from the wall.} _{Their eyes seem to search the viewer for answers, yet they ask questions that war has left unanswered. The wall stands as a silent witness, bearing traces of lives once present and memories that refuse to fade.}}

^{_{Explores the forced displacement of the minds that once helped shape their societies. Their departure takes with it not only people, but also knowledge, experience, and creative potential, leaving behind a void that cannot easily be filled.}} ^{_{The hidden cost of war is not found only in ruined cities, but in the loss of minds, the disappearance of knowledge, and the gradual erosion of a society’s ability to shape its future.}}

^{_{The Forthcoming emerged from a recurring vision that stayed with me until it found its form in this painting. As events unfolded, the work revealed itself as a meditation on history, memory, and the human condition. At its center stands a girl whose face bears the traces of many others, suggesting that history is never carried by one life alone. Rather than offering answers, the work asks what kind of history we are creating.}}

^{_{The Book of Hope explores what endures beyond loss. It reflects on the power of knowledge to preserve memory and sustain hope, suggesting that what we choose to protect today becomes part of what future generations inherit. Rather than offering certainty, the work leaves space to consider how hope survives through what we preserve and pass on.}}

^{_{Looking Forward To…Not every journey begins with a step; some begin with a gaze, and others with the courage to rise. This work is a meditation on hope—not as a promise of the future, but as a strength that emerges from within each time we rise from our brokenness. The fractures that mark the body are not scars of defeat, but maps of what we have endured, bearing witness to what has shaped the spirit and given it the resilience to rise again. What moves us forward is not the certainty of the path, but the belief that whatever lies ahead is worth rising for.}}

^{_{Two Souls, One Thought explores the enduring life of ideas beyond a single lifetime. Memory, experience, and thought transcend time, linking souls that may never meet. Ideas are carried forward—reimagined by each generation. Lives come to an end; the conversation between souls endures.}}

^{_{Human Duality reflects on the many layers of human identity and the fragile boundary between appearance and truth. Beneath every face lies another story, shaped by memory, experience, and the unseen dialogue between what we reveal and what we choose to hide.
Rather than offering answers, the work becomes a space for reflection. It invites us to pause before judging, to look beyond appearances, and to consider the quiet complexity that exists within every living being.
When every mask falls away, what remains?}}

^{_{Waiting
Not every waiting is an absence; sometimes it is the time the soul needs to ripen before taking flight.}}

^{_{Missing Part reflects the lifelong search for what completes us. It suggests that identity is never fully formed, but shaped as much by what is absent as by what remains. Some parts of ourselves live in memory, others in longing, while some remain just beyond our reach. The missing part is never simply absent; it continues to shape who we are. Pause for a moment. What part of yourself are you still searching for?}}

^{_{The Other Side reflects on what lies beyond immediate perception, where what is hidden can be as present as what is revealed. Beneath every surface lie traces that time has neither erased nor fully disclosed. Rather than offering certainty, the work invites us to consider that every visible world holds another beneath it—one shaped as much by what remains unseen as by what is revealed. Pause for a moment. What do you imagine lies on the other side?}}

^{_{When Silence Speaks What Words Cannot Express Silence is not the absence of speech, but the presence of a deeper language. It moves with the light, breathes through the earth, and lives within every living presence.Some truths cannot be spoken, because they were never meant to be put into words. They reveal themselves only to those willing to listen beyond language. Like silence, art does not speak through words; it reveals itself through contemplation.}}

^{_{Memoir of a Sumerian Musician}} ^{_{A civilization outlives its creators, enduring through its symbols, its stories, and its music.}} ^{_{I reimagined the Sumerian lyre as a page within a book, where music is not only heard but also read-a form of knowledge carried across generations. The music of civilizations continues to echo through time. Only those who listen deeply shape what comes next.}}

^{_{The World Through Babylonian Eyes}} ^{_{This work is inspired by one of humanity’s most extraordinary acts of imagination—the moment humanity first dared to envision the world as a whole.}} ^{_{What began as a question became the first map, a vision that continues to shape our understanding of the world and our place within it.}} ^{_{Every map begins long before it is drawn. It begins with the courage to imagine the world.}}

^{_{They Were Just Children. Their dream was no different from any other-to live in peace, to feel safe, and to grow without fear.}} ^{_{When war forced them to flee, I reimagined their journey as paper boats-fragile vessels carrying memory and the enduring hope of finding safety.}} ^{_{How many dreams are lost before they reach safe ground?}}

^{_{They Were Just Children}} ^{_{I transformed a child’s shirt into a silent witness to innocence interrupted. War steals more than lives. It steals the futures children were meant to have.}}

^{Explore the Archive} ^{www.zainabart.no}