2024
Sinan Hussein
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Painter
Roki in Wonderland - Mixed media on canvas - 130 x 140 cm - 2023
"Figurative Dreams: Sinan’s Emotional Landscapes"
Hussein’s painting style leans toward expressive figuration, where human forms are central, yet never fully literal. His figures often appear elongated, abstracted, or fragmented—caught between visibility and disappearance. This treatment reflects the psychological states of longing, trauma, and survival. With gentle, yet purposeful brushstrokes, he infuses his characters with vulnerability, portraying them not just as individuals, but as symbols of a wider human and cultural condition. Their gazes, gestures, and postures speak volumes in silence.
"Color as Memory: A Language of Feeling" Sinan Hussein’s use of color is deeply intuitive and emotionally charged. Muted earth tones dominate many of his compositions—browns, grays, faded reds—evoking the Kurdish terrain and the muted memories it holds. Yet, sudden bursts of blue or gold emerge like hope in the darkness, signaling resilience or moments of spiritual elevation. His palette becomes a psychological tool, guiding viewers through inner worlds of suffering, reflection, and renewal. Each canvas is less a scene and more a sensation, carefully constructed through color and tone.
At Folk Art Space
Pooki Kaki’s son - Mixed media on canvas - 150 x 150 cm - 2023
The Garden of Forgotten Birds - Mixed media on canvas - 150 x 200 cm - 2023
Roki I - Mixed media on canvas - 150 x 100 cm - 2023
"Symbolism and Silence: The Power of the Unspoken"
Hussein employs a subtle visual symbolism throughout his work. Birds, windows, veiled faces, and barren trees frequently appear, not as decorative motifs, but as carriers of meaning. A bird might represent both the desire for freedom and the fragility of existence; a window may be a passage between confinement and liberation. His paintings rarely explain themselves outright—they invite the viewer to pause, interpret, and feel. Silence, for Hussen, is not emptiness—it is presence, waiting to be understood.
"The Canvas as a Diary: Painting through Personal and Political Exile" For Hussein, painting is both personal therapy and political witness. Many of his works feel like pages from a visual diary—meditative records of displacement, cultural erasure, and personal healing. Though his themes are rooted in the Kurdish experience, they resonate universally, touching on identity, belonging, and the search for meaning. The canvas becomes a site of testimony where memory and imagination co-exist, and where history is not just remembered, but re-felt through artistic gesture.
Sinan Hussein’s art lives at the crossroads of tradition and contemporary expression. While his technique reflects global influences—expressionism, surrealism, and abstract figuration—his visual language is unmistakably Kurdish. The weight of ancestral heritage, oral storytelling, and folk aesthetics seeps into his compositions. Yet, he reframes this legacy through a modern lens, making it relevant and urgent. In doing so, Hussen doesn’t just paint as a Kurdish artist—he redefines what Kurdish contemporary art can look like, bridging past and present with poetic force.
