Ali Talib (b. Basra, 1944) has held numerous solo exhibitions including National Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad, 1976; Gallery d'Art 50 x70, Beirut, 1994; De Vrije Academie, The Hague, 2003; United Nation Humans Settlements Programme, Barcelona, 2004; Green Art Gallery, Dubai, 2008; and Karim Gallery, Amman, 2009. He has also participated in biennials and triennials as well as major group shows including Four Iraqi Artists, Alif Gallery, Washington D.C., 1994; Cité International des Arts Exhibition, Paris, 2004; and Iraqi Artists in Exile, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas, 2009.

Talib studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad, and holds an MA in Graphic Design from Helwan University in Cairo. Through his work, Talib explores intersections of the past and present and is particularly interested in subjects related to humanity. Of his work and his role as an artist he states: ‘I am not a man who creates a distance between painting and his personal state of being, testing his relationship with the space in which he moves. The painting is just like finding an incomparable secret after enduring hardship.’