Caricature Exhibition in Erbil, Capital City of Kurdistan Region – Iraq

Dr. Sabah Hussien is a teacher at Salahadin Art College in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq. He teaches set decorations, clothes, and makeup for filmmaking. He hosted this fair to showcase one of his many talents: caricature art.

He displayed multiple portraits of colleagues and students. Caricature is an art form that exaggerates the unique features of those being drawn. “This art isn’t meant to intimidate but to break the wall between teacher and student. I wanted to make it fun,” Dr. Sabah Hussien says. “When I was younger, I was more into photography, filmmaking, and such. I also enjoyed animation and creating cartoons,” he continues. Character design has also been one of his many lessons. “We focus on sketching and design,” he says.


Creativity like this should be showcased more, especially the creativity of our young minds and future generations. Mena Gallery hopes to build a foundation where authentic Middle Eastern artists like Dr. Sabah Hussien can sell their art and tell their stories. We hope to influence and educate our neighbors across the world about the beauty of expressive art.

This was an enjoyable experience, and we’ll be sure to see more of Dr. Sabah’s creativity as he plans to create more fairs to display his other art forms in the near future. For now, you can get a glimpse of his work through two of the books he has published.