Alkaaby Fine Art in downtown San Diego occupies a working studio on Ninth Avenue in the East Village, where Iraqi-born painter Khalid Alkaaby creates and sells original oil works directly to collectors. Classically trained at the Art Institute in Baghdad before immigrating to the United States in 2005, Alkaaby brings formal compositional technique to an East Village arts block shared with Tenth Avenue Arts Center. Textural brushwork in muted tones and layered color fields characterize the abstract body of work, with compositions channeling Surrealist-era automatic painting into contemporary abstraction. Figurative pieces depicting dancers and posed figures explore themes of self-expression and liberty, a thematic register that intersects with the rotating contemporary exhibitions at Stefanie Bales Fine Art. Large-scale commissioned abstractions built to specific palette and dimensional requirements for residential and corporate installations represent the studio's highest-value output.