Madhat Kakei

Born a Kurdish in Karuk, northern Iraq. He aspired for painting after he met an old traveling painter on a mountain lane in his childhood. After his studies in Baghdad fine arts school for five years, he studied in Madrid Arts Academy for three years and had his first solo exhibition in Iraq and Spain during that time. 

He fled the Iran-Iraq in 1984 war to pursue his painting to Sweden, where lived a large Kurdish community and where he received citizenship within two years, hoping to become a member in the Swedish Artists Association. 

Kakei visited Japan in 1985 andstayed working for a year and held solo exhibitions in Tokyo and Chiba. Kakei thus lives in Stockholm suburb as his base, showing works in Madrid, Paris, German cities, New york, Tokyo and itger Japanese cities. 

Since the end of 1980s, figurative elements that had been Kakeis work, vanished from his work completely, and his style changed  to monochrome-like and non-objective. This recent works are said to evoke vast spaces of ground, plain, forest and sky, or the homecoming sentiments surrounded by light and darkness, wind and sound, clouds and fogs.

text from The Artistic Career of Madhat Kakei, by Ichiro Hariu