Fragments of Memories brings together works tracing the artist’s evolving reflections on cities, heritage and displacement
Dubai, United Arab Emirates ; 1 September 2026: Iraqi artist Saad Twaij will present his first exhibition in Dubai this month at Hestia Gallery, bringing together works that explore memory, architecture and his relationship with the cities that have shaped his life.
Running from 20 September to 5 October 2026, Fragments of Memories combines earlier paintings with a more recent body of increasingly abstract work, showing how Twaij’s artistic language has evolved while remaining closely connected to his memories of Iraq.
Twaij left Iraq after decades of conflict and has lived in the UAE for more than 15 years. Baghdad remains a recurring presence in his work, alongside impressions gathered during his travels through Jordan, Oman and Türkiye.
Rather than depicting these places literally, Twaij draws on fragments of memory to create imagined cities in which architecture, landscape and history overlap.
“I never sketch before painting. I start directly with images from my past and what I see every day, then I compose without thinking. I believe this is how cities are built,” says Twaij.
References to Iraq’s Babylonian and Assyrian heritage appear throughout his practice, alongside more contemporary reflections on the transformation of Baghdad and the impact of conflict on the city.
This is perhaps most evident in Baghdad City. The Tigris runs through the work in black, a deliberate choice that reflects a difficult period in Iraq’s recent history. That period contrasts with Twaij’s memories of his childhood, when the city occupied an important place in the region’s cultural and artistic life.
But Twaij’s paintings are not solely concerned with loss. Colour remains a defining element of his work, offering a counterpoint to the histories of conflict and displacement that sit beneath many of the compositions.
Across Fragments of Memories, cities appear not as fixed places but as spaces continually altered by history, movement and those who remember them. Twaij’s paintings move between the Baghdad he knew and the places he encountered after leaving Iraq, shaped by the perspective he has developed during more than 15 years in the UAE.
In doing so, the exhibition considers how memories of a place change over time and how an artist can reconstruct a city that exists simultaneously as a physical place, a history and a personal memory.
About the artist
Educated in Baghdad at the Institute and College of Fine Arts, Twaij studied under some of Iraq’s most influential modern artists, including Faiq Hassan, Shakir Hassan Al Said, Rafa al-Nasiri, Kadhim Hayder and Ali Talib. The exhibition places this artistic formation in dialogue with his newest works, revealing a practice that has continued to evolve while remaining deeply connected to his Iraqi roots and the artistic education he received in Baghdad from a generation of influential Iraqi artists.
Key Dates
20 September – 5 October 2026 — “Fragments of Memories” by Saad Twaij
Hestia Gallery
Open Monday to Sunday, 10am – 6pm
Link to photos and all information about the exhibition: https://drive.google.com/drive/ folders/11dxcn4nFPNI8VSJkqJwjvX_VJAQm8xIA?usp=drive_link
Contact information for further media inquiries:
+971 523 41 25 48 | clemence@anres.fr