Miami, FL—Drawing from Life: Steve Mumford in Iraq, 2003-2004, opens at The Moore Space on Thursday, April 14, and runs through July 1, 2005. The exhibition was curated collaboratively by Matthew Kolodziej, Assistant Professor of Art at the Myers School of Art, University of Akron, Ohio, and Gregory Wittkopp, Director of Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, with the assistance of Magdalena Sawon, Postmasters Gallery, New York City. Before opening at The Moore Space, the exhibition was presented at the University Art Galleries, Myers School of Art, University of Akron, November 1 through December 3, 2004, and Cranbrook Art Museum at Cranbrook Academy of Art, January 29 through April 3, 2005.

Inspired by Winslow Homer’s Civil War paintings, New York-based artist Steve Mumford made four trips to Iraq in 2003 and 2004 to chronicle military and civilian life in the U.S.-occupied country. Traveling between Basra, Baghdad, Tikrit, Samarra, Karbala, Kirkuk, Dohuk and Hilla as an embedded journalist with the US military units, Mumford produced hundreds of drawings and paintings that capture the day-to-day existence of soldiers and Iraqis in a war-torn country. As an artist, Mumford secured his US Military press credentials through the online magazine, Artnet.com. He posted sixteen dispatches to the site over a two-year period including a chronicle of the attempts by the Third Brigade of the First Cavalry Division to quell insurgents in Baghdad in late October of 2004. Mumford’s “Baghdad Journal” was first posted in August of 2003 via a laptop and a satellite phone. The series represents his written account of the war in Iraq, the margins of which were illustrated with thumbnails of the drawings and photographs he took of his experiences with the people and places he observed.

As he traveled for a total of 10 months in Iraq, Mumford made ink drawings and watercolors in a sketchbook --many of them on the spot -- recording daily street life, military actions, private headquarters of the U.S. soldiers, check points, encounters with Iraqi artists and museums, oil fields, mass graves, market days, and the surrounding countryside.

“The complex and highly charged entanglement of art and life in a worn-torn environment makes Steve Mumford’s project in Iraq unique,” says Gregory Wittkopp, Director, Cranbrook Art Museum. “The drawings, accomplished and expressive, are often moving and beautiful; not a simple task given that many are made in stressful circumstances.”

Before beginning on this project, Mumford, age 44, was well known in the London and New York gallery worlds for his paintings of the American landscape with a contemporary twist. He was beginning work on a Vietnam series when the invasion of Iraq began. By that time the subject of war had become an “all-consuming interest,” says Mumford. After securing a press pass from Artnet, he bought himself his first plane ticket to Kuwait in April 2003 (he financed the project with sales of his own work and with a little help from his wife, the painter Inka Essenhigh). After this visit he returned to the region three times and his position on the war changed over the course of his travels. “Initially I went to Iraq convinced that the war was a big blunder,” says Mumford. “But I began to understand the invasion differently after spending time with Iraqis and hearing firsthand about life under Saddem Hussein.”

The Iraq project has brought Mumford much media attention including: ABC News Person of the Week, December 17, 2004; and a feature story in the December 13, 2004 edition of the New York Times.

There is a long tradition of artists documenting war including: Otto Dix, Käthe Kollwitz, and Goya to name but a few. American artist Winslow Homer, who inspired Mumford, also served in the role of reporter documenting the events of the Civil War for the magazine, Harper’s Bazaar.

The Moore Space is a non-profit arts organization dedicated to multi-disciplinary contemporary art practices. It offers a year-round program including exhibitions, educational programs, internships, artist residencies, lectures, and performances. Since its founding in 2001 by collector Rosa de la Cruz together with Craig Robins, an integral part of its exhibition program has been to invite guest curators to contribute new ideas and new thought to the organization and the Miami arts community at large. The sponsors of the exhibition include: Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz, Craig Robins and Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Cultural Affairs Council and The Mayor and the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners. The Moore Space is located in Miami’s Design District, at 4040 NE 2ndAvenue, 2nd Floor. Exhibition hours are Wednesday-Saturday from 10 am to5pm, and by appointment. For more information, please call 305.438.1163, or visit our Web site at www.themoorespace.org.