Hashim Hannoon
Iraqi-born artist paints cheery urban scenes in his new home of Vancouver.
Hashim Hannoon, “City Colours,” 2019
acrylic on canvas, 48” x 48”
To say Iraqi-born Hashim Hannoon’s paintings are cheerful is a vast understatement.
His work is a riot of vibrant colours – strawberry reds, lemon yellows, aqua blues, even peony pinks – sometimes applied in abstract blotches, but also incorporated into recognizable urban imagery from his adopted home, Vancouver.
The paintings in his solo show, City Life, at the Madrona Gallery in Victoria from June 8 to June 21, are so buoyant they might well have been made in a lollipop factory.
Although Hannoon's English is fractured – too much time working alone in his studio since coming to Canada a decade ago, he says – his joy after the hardships he faced in the Middle East is easy to decipher.
Born in Basra in 1957, he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from the College of Fine Arts in Baghdad. He says he taught art to schoolchildren for three years before he was drafted as a soldier in Iraq’s war with Iran. It was a difficult time.
“I am an artist,” he says. “I don’t like the war. This is not my job. My job is art.”
Hashim Hannoon, “Granville Street,” 2019
acrylic on canvas, 24” x 30”
After leaving Iraq, Hannoon moved first to Jordan and eventually to Canada, spending a year in Winnipeg before moving again to the more temperate climes of the West Coast.
His work exemplifies finding positivity in negativity, as critic Khalid Khudayer noted when he wrote about Hannoon’s 2008 solo exhibition in Jordan.
Indeed, Hannoon says little about the challenges of moving halfway around the world to start life anew. Instead, he talks about Vancouver's beautiful scenery and friendly people. His son and daughter have finished university and are working, he says, and he’s able to paint on a full-time basis.
He sells his work through Madrona and Mayberry Fine Art, which has galleries in Winnipeg and Toronto. It can be challenging for Canadian-born artists to find gallery representation, so Hannoon counts himself blessed.
“I am happy,” he says. ■
City Life is on view at the Madrona Gallery in Victoria from June 8 to June 21, 2019.
Madrona Gallery
606 View Street, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 1J4
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