Similar to Faisel, Modhir’s creative foundation in Baghdad was decisive for his artistic development. His passion for graphic arts and his move to Poland, shortly before the Iran-Iraq War, could hardly have surprised anyone.

An adventurous and introspective soul, Modhir experienced success and turmoil during this time in his education in Poland. But because of his expressive and utopian spirit, he created his own personal vision that resulted in his signature style.

Modhir’s first important one-man show in 1986 at the Gallery Promocyjna in Warsaw, Poland, established him as
an emerging figure in the Academy of Fine Arts at Warsaw. Consequently, he exhibited regularly in Poland – his exploration of place, memory and legacy evoke both Iraq and Poland’s pronounced periods of chaotic history, while also moving beyond it. His transfer to Sweden was a flight from an impasse.

In Sweden, he took aim at the dominant West and its consolidation of cultural power via complementary forces of globalization and multiculturalism by participating in important international art exhibitions and competitions that consistently won him prestigious awards – Iraq’s triumphant entry and Sweden’s answer into the global
graphic arts arena.

The Iraqi-Swedish artist has a trail blazing record of international awards won for Iraq and Sweden. Modhir received his first international merit in 1992 when he was awarded the jury prize at the 10th Norwegian International Print Triennial, Fredrikstad, Norway. From then on he garnered awards in every Triennial and Biennale from Scandinavia to Poland and from Egypt to France and China.

Modhir’s celebrated artworks capture the tenor and grit of contemporary experience without the pretensions of perfection. He spent over three and a half decades deploying innovative techniques while sustaining a consistent evolution – deliberately crude, childlike technique. He has achieved a delicate balance between recognition and un- recognition, figuration and abstraction - a roundup of abstract or near-abstract combined modernist structure with two-dimensional elements and stirring automatism into the mix.The integration of geometry, gesture, and figurative imply a spontaneous and instantaneous event where gesture rises through the geometry of the frame and asserts itself as fundamental energy. Energy that is impregnable yet develops aesthetic, perceptual and concrete forms that reveal displacement, openness and enigma – intelligent, complex and deep.