LONDON.- Haunch of Venison presents the first solo show in Britain by acclaimed Iraqi-born artist Ahmed Alsoudani. In this new series of paintings, Alsoudani continues his complex exploration of war and conflict, its physical atrocities and psychological consequences. Featuring deformed, almost bestial, figures twisting in vivid and surreal landscapes, these tableaux are often laced with a barbed or morbid humour in the manner of artists such as Francisco Goya and Max Beckmann among others. Imagery of devastation and violence abounds, with figures depicted at the moment of a dramatic transition –through fear or agony – from the human to the grotesque. The departure point for Alsoudani’s elaborate compositions are energetic charcoal drawings through which he entwines and intersperses ribbons of startlingly bright colour, blurring traditional distinctions between painting and drawing. Alsoudani’s palett