Nessim Zalayet was born in 1923 in Baghdad. In 1941, a teenager, he witnessed the Farhud; riots against the Jews on the holiday of Shavuot. 

Nessim, who began his artistic career in Iraq as a figurative artist specialising in portraits, consciously chose to revert to an abstract style to which he continues to adhere. It is possible to say that Zalayet underwent a form of artistic absorption, during which he chose to abandon the symbols of the past, expressed by his older style and embark upon a new path. Nevertheless, examining his works presented in the exhibition reveals to us the footsteps of the past – sometimes defined, other times blurry - like footprints in the sand on the beach.