Reel Syria 2012 may formally be over, but we are very proud to announce an exhibition by the political cartoonist Ali Ferzat, the first retrospective of his work in the UK.

Venue: Mica Gallery, Studio 2, 259A Pavilion Road, Sloane Square, SW1X 0BP

Dates: 20th March to 29th March 2012

Times:Monday to Friday: 10am – 6pm Saturdays: 11am – 6pm (strictly by appointment only)

Political cartoonist and ‘icon of freedom in the Arab world’ Ali Ferzat has spent decades satirizing Arab rulers and authorities in more than 15,000 caricatures, offering an acute visual commentary on the brutal practices of the Syrian Ba’ath regime.

In 2001, Ferzat launched the satirical newspaper, Al-Domari (“Lamp-lighter”) which was forced to close by the Ba’ath authorities in 2003, and his cartoons have been banned in several Arab countries. For denouncing the corruption and abuses of Bashar Al-Assad’s rule, he was attacked in August by masked gunmen, who broke his hands as a warning.

In 2011, he was awarded the Press Freedom Prize by Reporters Without Borders and Le Monde. He has been nominated for Index on Censorship’s 2012 award for artists, filmmakers and writers whose work asserts artistic freedom and battles against repression and injustice.

This is an extremely rare chance to see work produced by Ali Ferzat over the course of the last year.

Ali Ferzat will also be discussing his work at a forthcoming event hosted by Amnesty International on Thursday March 22nd. For more details click here

This event is sponsored by Amnesty International, Mosaic Initiative for Syria and Firefly International