Ali Mandalawi

Ali Mandalawi is an Iraqi cartoonist and artist.

Early life
Mandalawi was born in 1958 in Mandali, Diyala Province, Iraq. He graduated from the Baghdad Institute of Fine Arts in 1979 and from the Baghdad Academy of Fine Arts in 1986.

Career
Mandalawi is a freelance writer, designer, and painter, as well as cartoonist and book illustrator. He has worked in children's media since 1975 making illustrations for more than 40 children's books. His works (book illustrations, children's media, cartoons, and free painting) have been displayed in ten personal exhibitions held in Iraq, Jordan, the Netherlands, Tunisia, and in the United Kingdom. He began working for newspapers as a cartoonist in 1983. His drawings have been published in newspapers in Iraq and other Arab countries, working also in London 1999–2003.

He worked as a children's culture consultant for the ministry of culture in Kurdistan during 2005–2006, where he organized the first international festival for Kurdistan children in the summer of 2006 in the capital Arbil.