Masks, 1990, oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cm

Self-portrait, 1989, oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cm

Afifa Aleiby i m o n l S h

: S a m u e t o

P h o

Life, 1996, oil on canvas, 50 x 70 cm

Afifa Aleiby was born in Basra, Iraq, in 1952. She has lived and studied in Moscow and presently lives between Italy and Holland. She graduated from the Institute of Fine Art in Baghdad in 1974, at the same time working as an illustrator for Tariq al-Sha’ab newspaper. In the early eighties, living and studying in the Soviet Union, she graduated from the Institute of Fine Art in Moscow. Before settling in Italy, she taught at the Institute of Fine Art in Aden, Yemen.

Afifa Aleiby has held many one-man exhibitions, including in London, Rome, Florence, Amsterdam and Gouda, and participates regularly in group shows of Iraqi, European and woman artists. Last year she was a contributor to UNESCO’s Cultural Capital of 1999 Beirut Festival. Her latest one-man show was in London at the Kufa Gallery in June 2000.

Front Cover: (l to r) Afifa Aleiby : The Balloonist, 1996, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm; Solitude, 1988, oil on canvas, 150 x 100 cm; Window on St Mark’s Square, 1990, oil on canvas, 35 x 50 cm Photos of Tahar Ben Jelloun & Mahmoud Darwish: Samuel Shimon

The Tower, 1991, oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cm