Dara Ola (Daro)

12 drawings 20 x 20 cm
2 drawings 30 x 30 cm

These works mostly show disoriented and powerless people, especially Yazidi women who were raped by ISIS fighters.

Describing the drawings of the Yazidi persecution Dara said: “I see these works as preliminary drawings for a series of printmaking and painting works which I have now started. They are a reflection of the greatest crime in the world, the creation of ISIS. I got the idea for these drawings from the media, social media and television which showed horrific torture and death.”

Artist’s biography

Dara Ola (Daro) was born in 1965, in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan. He has been living in Vienna since 1987. Daro studied graphic arts and printmaking techniques at the Academy of Fine Arts. He holds a Master of Arts (with distinction).

From 1999 to 2009, he was teaching at the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg. In 2010, he taught in Traunkirchen. He returned to Sulaymaniyah in 2013 and is now a lecturer at the Sulaymaniyah Academy of Fine Arts, where he helped set up the graphic and design class. He is also the founder of the Culture Factory in Sulaymaniyah. He has held individual and group exhibitions in galleries and museums in Austria and across Europe.