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Brush Strokes Gallery in downtown Fredericksburg will feature the work of a dynamic and internationally recognized artist from Iraq: Hashim Al Samarrai.

In a show titled Crossroads: Where East Meets West, which was born from Al Samarrais desire to showcase his Middle Eastern culture beside the free-flowing American landscape, visitors will see 18 of his paintings. Most are for sale, but a few hail from personal collections and are being displayed specifically for the show.

Penny Parish, gallery president, said she was especially impressed by his versatility, but also his ability to capture the world as it exists in his own medium.

Art, like music, is a universal language, she said. You do not have to know words to appreciate talent and beauty. We hope visitors see that in Hashims work.

The exhibit will be displayed through July 31. It will open with a First Friday reception on July 1 from 5 to 9 p.m. The artist is expected to attend.

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The works selected for the show are painted in oils and acrylics in his distinct style of realistic scenes with expressionistic colors, lush textures and playful light. Iraqs ancient ways of life, which have always been tied to the land, may be disappearing, but Al Samarrai has revived them in paintings such as Streets of Old Baghdad and works that convey the lonely challenges of the desert, such as Man of the Desert and Resting Place.

His travels in the United States have served as a beacon of hope and healing for him. In Virginia Gold, he captures the beauty of a sunset over the river, while Sunrise conveys the hope of a new day.

Al Samarrai hopes that his Crossroads exhibit will convey the message that, while Iraqi and American cultures may differ on the surface, a shared heart of resilience and common humanity beats at their core and we can recognize the beauty in the other.

A guest exhibitor to the gallery, Al Samarrais paintings have been featured in several American and Middle Eastern galleries and his commissions are found in personal collections throughout the world.

He is a lifelong student of art, but also of history, and Al Samarrai has always found inspiration in Iraqi history and old traditions. He and his work have borne witness as back-to-back wars destroyed the cultural heritage and natural resources of Iraq.

He graduated first in his class from the Baghdad Institute of Fine Arts in 1991, just after the Gulf War. During the crushing economic sanctions that followed the war, canvas and paint were impossible to find. So, he fashioned canvasses out of worn cloth, stretched and painted with makeshift white paint. He was able to harness the inherent roughness of his homemade canvasses to create rich texture and depth in his paintings.

His love of texture began long before that, though. Al Samarrai was born in Samarra, Iraq in 1969, one of ten children. He described knowing he was an artist by age three, always with a pen and paper in hand. He was once so taken by the way the light hit his eggs in the morning, he ran to get his pencils and completely forgot to eat.

When reflecting on his career as an artist, but specifically during the past 19 war-torn years, Hashim said, Unquestionably, painting breathes air into my lungs and allows me to separate myself from my bitter surroundings and remain optimistic. It allows me to press forward amidst a life marred by fear, debilitating uncertainty, and terror. Like a delicate butterfly, painting gives me wings strong enough to float above the chaos. I dream and work toward opportunities to break the chains that tether me from expanding my talent and sharing my gifts with the world.

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Brush Strokes Gallery to feature works by internationally recognized artist from Iraq - Culpeper Star-Exponent