This picture shows Syrian artist Abdalla Al Omari and his painting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad depicted as a refugee. His art project titled "The Vulnerability Series" on display at the Ayyam Gallery in Dubai imagines world leaders as they might look if they lost all their power and became refugees.
The leaders portrayed in the project include US President Donald Trump, Syrian President Bashar al Assad, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and former US President Barack Obama. The project is made up of a short video and large-format portraits on canvas in which the artist paints the leaders as displaced and desperate, taking away their power and charisma and revealing their human vulnerability. Omari began this work based on his own experience as a displaced refugee and his anger over the situation in Syria, but during the course of the work it transformed into depictions of what it looks like when powerful leaders have their power taken away."I wanted to take away their power not to serve me and my pain but to give those leaders back their humanity and the audience an insight into what the power of vulnerability can achieve," said Omari in explaining his work.