Chaos in Color

Chaos in Color

Paintings by Almigdad Aldikhaiiry

About the Exhibition & Artist

Chaos in Color highlights three paintings by Los Angeles-based artist, Almigdad Aldikhaiiry. Aldikhaiiry was born in Sudan in 1984 and was raised in Saudi Arabia. He attended the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Khartoum where he trained in graphic design. He began his professional career as a political cartoonist in 2000 before traveling around the world and expressing his thoughts on culture, climate change, and the environment. After moving to Los Angeles in 2016, he taught himself how to paint and now primarily uses large-scale oil and watercolor canvases to bring awareness to climate change, political unrest, and human rights issues. 

In Chaos in Color, Aldikhaiiry presents his latest COVID series and paints with his signature bright color palette to illustrate the pandemic with an unexpected vibrancy and uses ironically playful COVID-19 motifs to reveal the multifaceted nature of pandemic life and the effects of COVID-19 on the environment and society.

The exhibit invites visitors to reflect on the beauty of our natural world, our responsibility to our environment and society, and to think of those less fortunate and disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, including low-income families and households, as well as indigenous and other communities of color.  The exhibit asks visitors to reflect on what “normal” has looked like for them during the pandemic.

The exhibit was curated by students in ARTH 398 Seminar in Museum Studies and in partnership with the Museums at W&L:  Katherine Berman ‘22, Ruth Dibble ‘22, Merrill Dowdy ‘23, Amelia Lancaster ‘22, Tyler Palicia ‘23, Grace Pelosky ‘22, and Sydney von Rosenberg ‘21.  ARTH  398 is part of the Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies minor. 

Aldikhaiiry is represented by Hana Pietri Gallery, based in Chicago, Illinois.