Nominated by
We Too Built Britain
Zehra Zaidi is a lawyer, development consultant, founder of the heritage and diversity project We Too Built Britain and occasional writer on art and social justice.
I interviewed Maysaloun for a piece that I was writing for Nukta art magazine and visited her at her London studio. I wanted to meet the painter, ceramist and sculptor that had put Iraqi painting on the map - from the groundbreaking exhibition and book Strokes of Genius: Contemporary Iraqi Art to the founding of ayagallery in London.
Sitting even for a few hours with Maysaloun gave me hope that, despite the devastation that followed the Iraq War, the brilliant and wide-ranging creativity and storytelling of Iraq’s artists would not be lost. Her own art bridges cultural divides and helps us navigate our identity post- displacement, migration, conflict and trauma. As someone from a diaspora community myself, I find so much resonance in her storytelling and the values by which she lives and creates art.