Biography
The artist's career is marked by pivotal encounters.
which shaped the artist he is today.
1966 At the age of ten, he discovered art by meeting the Iraqi sculptor Mohammed Ghani Hikmat .
He was fascinated to see stone and wood, rigid materials, bend to the artist's intentions. Lacking sculpting tools, Ayad Celebi starts to paint.
In 1972 at the age of sixteen, he met Khalid al-Jader, a pioneer of modern Iraqi art. Upon discovering Ayad Celebi's paintings, the artist exclaimed to him: "You can be an artist." This decisive recognition allowed him to see painting as a profession, and no longer simply as a hobby.
In 1976 Ayad was working as a graphic designer and illustrator for Iraqi media outlets and met the calligrapher Mohammed Said Saggar,
renowned for revolutionizing the discipline by breaking down its rules and rigidity. Ayad admired Saggar, his profound sense of aesthetics and refinement, his kindness, and his love for the art form, which Saggar passed on to him. Ayad, in turn, developed his own artistic exploration, where calligraphy became a space for artistic freedom.
1984 In view of his pictorial practice, the painter-ceramist
André Borderie advised him to learn engraving at the Lacourière-Frélaut workshop, frequented by Dalí, Matisse, and Picasso. There he met the painter Dado, whose pictorial energy deeply inspires him. He perceives this place as a space for sharing, emulation, and generosity among artists.
Ayad Celebi founded the " Créations Dhanon company " specializing in surface design.
1989-2009 Ayad worked independently as a designer of textile surfaces, wallpaper, laminate…An activity that
profoundly enriches his approach painting
This profession teaches him the language of colours,
shapes, textures; all these aspects have nourished his pictorial research throughout these years.
Major events in the painter's life, visual and emotional shocks are the subject of a separate research project.
1984 During his solo exhibition at the Imhotep Gallery
In Paris, he presented a series of portraits widely covered by the Arab press. This series is a response
to the comment of an American soldier comparing
the bombing of Baghdad to a "Christmas tree":
He composes faces sparkling with colours to recall the humanity behind each attacked territory, thus creating the Baghdad exhibition, "Baghdad like a Christmas tree".
In 2003 Iraq was invaded by the United States, and Ayad found himself facing a landscape of desolation. In the Symphony in black and white, the artist then embarked on a quest for a shifting truth, which he captured in a series that continues to grow today.
2010 After years and several wars, Ayad returns to Iraq, a country he rediscovers as a foreign territory
A stranger, without bearings. Confronted with a chaos where traces of the past remain, he creates the series of Love Letters: paintings made flat then crumpled and frozen, a metaphor for disorder which gradually finds a form of harmony through rebirth.
Since 2010 Ayad has pursued a demanding pictorial research. He deepens his major series while exploring new avenues of expression, in a constantly evolving body of work.
2011-2015 Continuation and enrichment of the series: Faces, Symphony in Black and White, Cities of Clay and Love Letters.
2016-2020 Memory, matter and colour remain at the heart of his artistic research.
2021-2026 Ayad continues his iconic series and, true to his spirit of innovation, enriches his work with research around contemporary pop-ups.
Between painting, sculpture and paper architecture, these creations push the boundaries of the canvas and give a new dimension to his artistic universe.
