Sherko Abbas is a Kurdish-Iraqi artist. He was born in Iran in 1978, where his family lived
as refugees, and returned to Iraq when he was two years old. He studied Fine Art in
Sulaymaniyah, Iraq and graduated with a Master in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College,
University of London in 2015. He works within various media including video, performance,
text, sculpture and sound. His practice is dedicated to collective memory, sonic and visual
memory, as well as the geopolitical situation of contemporary Iraq. Through his work, he
observes how war has been absorbed into local culture in Iraq through music, film,
cartoons and children’s toys.
Abbas’ works have been exhibited and screened internationally including at: Archaic, the
Iraq pavilion at the 57th Venice biennale; Theater of Operations, MoMA PS1, New York;
May Flames Pave the Way for You, Arsenal gallery, Białystok; Push Festival, Manchester ,
UK; Independent Iraqi Film Festival, Online screening; 38th Kassel Documentary Film And
Video Festival, Kassel Germany; Aashra, Ashkal Alwan Online Film; Towner International,
Towner Eastbourne, Eastbourne; Speaking Across Mountains, Middle East Institute,
Washington D.C.; Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Louvre Auditorium, Paris;
Baghdad Mon Amour, Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris; Vernacularity, Alternativa
Festival, Gdansk; Estrangement, The Showroom, London.
Abbas also works as a curator, organizer and coordinator of cultural events. He curated, inter alia, the project “Sermedy Le 437.072 sq km” (2007) and was the operation manager of the project “Post-war Culture in Iraq” (2010), both at the Amna Suraka Museum, Sulaimani. In 2017, in collaboration with the curator Aneta Szyłak, he researched and coordinated the project “In-between Worlds. Kurdish Contemporary Artists”, resulting in a collection of artworks from over 30 Kurdish-Iraqi artists and a book. The collection is now part of the Imago Mundi collection under the auspices of the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, Treviso, Italy.
Contact:
Sherkodado@gmail.com
Current And Upcoming Exhibition
recent screening and exhibitions.

Habibi Collective
Film screening at The Station
Baghdad
12-14.03.2022

ArteEast Interview
Artist Spotlight with Sherko Abbas
03.03.2022
To read the interview please click here

International Videoart
At Fábrica do Braço de Prata, [Lisbon]
Organized and developed by Elizabeth Withstandley [US] and Pedro Inock [PT]
17-19.01.2022
http://sherkoabbas.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/videoart-document-FBP-lisbon.pdf

NOMUS Nowe Muzeum Sztuki w Gdańsku
MAY FLAMES PAVE THE WAY FOR YOU
CONTEMPORARY KURDISH ART
curator: Aneta Szy łak
23.10.2021 – 27.02.2022
https://nomus.gda.pl/aktualnosci/wystawa/niech-poprzedza-cie-plomien

38th Kassel Documentary Film And Video Festival
KulturBahnhof Kassel BALi Kinos And Online
18.11.2021 08:00 Pm Screening Of Silence Along The River
https://www.kasselerdokfest.de/en/compilation/p-38cd823b-0308-e24b-ba9b-023d1578ddc3

Push Festival
At Home Manchester 2021
27 October 2021 – Brouhaha/ When the Wild Instrument Sing– Noise performance
https://homemcr.org/production/brouhaha-2021-with-kani-kamil-and-sherko-abbas/

IIFF 2021
Independent Iraqi Film Festival.
online from 1 to7 October
4 October 2021- screening of Paper Puppet Testimony
https://iiffestival.com/2326-2/
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1914726/independent-iraqi-film-festival-back


May Flames Pave Way for You
contemporary Kurdish Art
Arsenal Gallery Power Station- Poland
26 Jun to 9 August 2020
exhibition virtual walkthrough
http://sztukakurdystanu.com/en/exhibition-walkthrough/
links
Exhibition
Catalogue