Faris al-Saffar

Faris Al-Saffar has been drawing for most of his life. However, the Baghdad native wound up a civil engineer in Iraq for the military—a kind of slavery under Saddam. Sworn to secrecy, Faris was obliged to work on a long-range missile project. Then came the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam’s forces. Faris went AWOL, hiding from the Iraqi army in Baghdad. In 1991, during the rebel uprising against Saddam, he managed to get through the Republican Guards lines during, crossing rebel lines to reach American forces. Faris soon found himself in a U.S. POW camp in Saudi Arabia, along with over 100,000 other Iraqis. This desert fortress would be Faris’ home for the next year and a half.
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Through the auspices of the United Nations, Faris received political asylum in the United States. After a stint in San Diego, where there is a growing Iraqi community, Faris went to a government-supported animation school and landed a job at Disney as a special effects artist, where he worked on such films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules and The Legend of Mulan.

Faris Al-Saffar in Los Angeles

Faris has exhibited drawings in solo and group exhibits since 1984, in both Iraq and the United States. In 2008 he exhibited works in "Memorial for Mutannabi Street" at the Newport Beach Library, and in 2009 his exhibit Baghdadism appeared at the Levantine Cultural Center gallery.

Artwork by Faris al-Saffar

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