CORVALLIS, Ore. - Iraqi video installation artist Adel Abidin will meet with the public and discuss his work as part of the Visiting Artists and Scholars Program sponsored by Oregon State University's Department of Art.

His free public lecture begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 8, in Memorial Union Room 109. A reception for the artist begins at the same location at 6 p.m.

In his artwork, Abidin focuses particularly on postcolonial themes, such as "cultural alienation and marginalization." His work addresses issues or experiences of exclusion, gender roles and sexuality, as well as life, death and the depravities of war. Central to all of Abidin's art is his use of black humor and irony.

Abidin was born in 1973 in Baghdad, Iraq, where he studied painting at the Baghdad Academy of Fine Arts before moving to Helsinki, Finland, in 2001 to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree in new media. He is represented in major collections in Finland, Paris, Berlin and Istanbul, and is internationally recognized through numerous exhibitions, including his work in the 2007 Venice Biennale.

Abidin's work is the subject of a major solo exhibition at Kiasma, Helsinki's Museum of Contemporary Art.

Source: 

Kirsi Peltomäki, (541) 737-5008

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