Jun 23

Jun 23 Hosni Radwan: Lines of Memory, Motion, and Exile

Born in Baghdad in 1955, Hosni Radwan studied fine arts at the University of Baghdad, specializing in graphics. His early exposure to the rich visual and cultural heritage of Iraq left an enduring imprint on his practice.

In 1979, he left Baghdad for Beirut, where he worked in graphic design and journalism, all while continuing to draw and paint. His creative output became a powerful vehicle for expressing his personal and political relationship to Palestine—the homeland he could not inhabit, but never ceased to evoke.

Over the past four decades, Radwan has developed a distinctive visual language that fuses abstraction with figuration, technique with emotion. He has held solo exhibitions across Iraq, Lebanon, Cyprus, Japan, and Palestine, and participated in major international biennales including Berlin, Cairo, and Sharjah.

Radwan’s work is marked by an effort to capture the external world in all its complexity, not merely through color or material, but through the movement of line and the emotion it carries. His memories of Baghdad remain central to his visual vocabulary, forming the emotional backbone of a practice shaped by exile and longing.

In his recent series, Lines in Motion, lines take on a life of their own. Fluid and spontaneous, they outline bodies, gestures, and expressions that oscillate between joy, contemplation, and melancholy. These seemingly simple strokes hold deep emotional weight—curving around silhouettes of women at rest, tracing a hand reaching for an apple, or forming fragmented bodies that seem caught between two places, two identities.

Radwan’s women—often central to his compositions, embody both stillness and motion. Through them, he conveys tenderness and emotional depth, surrounded by vibrant patterns, poetic objects like scattered pomegranates, and rhythmic negative space. His distinctive watercolor technique heightens this lyricism, giving voice to silent narratives and unspoken memories. Throughout his career, Radwan has transformed exile into a wellspring of creativity. His work bridges geographies and histories, weaving personal memory with collective longing. Within the delicate strength of his lines lies the enduring question of belonging—rendered visible in every bend, curve, and gesture of the brush.

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