Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Ahmed Alsoudani fled to Syria during the First Gulf War. In 1999 he immigrated to the United States seeking political asylum. Showing many influences, Alsoudani’s style most directly reflects American and European traditions, a point he attributes to his American schooling at the Maine College of Art and Yale University.

Though Alsoudani draws heavily on western art history, his subject matter remains firmly rooted in Iraq. In his work, abstraction moves beyond style: it becomes a critical tool to express the chaos in his native country. In Slow River, dismembered human bodies crowd the picture- sometimes resolving into figures and other times remaining ghostly allusions to body parts. The haunting image evokes the war zone of his youth, seen through the artistic influence of his adopted nation.