Guernica to Gaza

Guernica to Gaza is an exhibition of work by Inverness Creative Academy-based painters Ian Whyte and Dot Walker, created in response to the continuing suffering of the people of Palestine in Gaza and the West Bank.

Motivated by a deep concern for their suffering and feeling limited in their ability to help directly, they turned to their creative practice as a means of expressing solidarity and bearing witness. This has resulted in a series of intimate portraits of men, women and children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Palestine.

Guernica to Gaza is a touring exhibition, previously staged at Eden Court in Inverness in Spring 2026. The title painting by Ian has since been acquired by Palestine Museum Scotland in Edinburgh, which is an extension of the Palestine Museum in Connecticut. The institution was first founded by Faisal Saleh, whose family fled the Nakba in 1948. The Edinburgh iteration, opened in 2025, is the first gallery in Europe that is dedicated to exhibiting contemporary Palestinian art.

Faisal Saleh, founder of the Palestine Museum in Connecticut, has said of the painting’s acquisition: While many contemporary artists have reinterpreted Pablo Picasso’s 1937 Guernica to depict the carnage in Gaza, Ian Whyte’s Guernica to Gaza stands out for its distinct personal style.

Where Picasso used broad, mythological symbols to universalize civilian suffering, Whyte deliberately personalizes the tragedy. By rendering specific faces with emotional clarity, he ensures that casualties are never viewed as mere statistics or distant geopolitical abstractions. His work forces a direct confrontation with the “fear of the other” by emphasizing a deeply shared humanity.

This artistic critique is subtly informed by Whyte’s background as an ophthalmic surgeon. His work is profoundly preoccupied with how we “see”- or choose to look away from – profound suffering. By placing highly detailed, realistic human portraiture directly alongside the fractured chaos of Guernica, Whyte mimics the act of focusing a medical lens: stripping away the overwhelming noise of genocide to force the viewer to look directly into the eyes of a single individual.

Ultimately, the painting functions as a powerful act of bearing witness. Born from a sense of political helplessness and an urgent need to channel creative energy into tangible solidarity with dispossessed people, Guernica to Gaza bridges the historical memory of European anti-fascist art with contemporary Middle Eastern trauma. Palestine Museum Scotland is proud to acquire this masterpiece, which exemplifies the vital role of modern painting in actively engaging with issues of social justice and human rights.

For Ian and Dot, the title of the exhibition is taken from Picasso’s famed Guernica painting, which portrays the overnight bombardment of the city during the Spanish Civil War. The artists’ approach to this project is inspired by Picasso’s depiction of human suffering during wartime, as they believe that creative work has an important role to play in engaging with issues of freedom, oppression and social justice.

Formerly a medical practitioner and ophthalmic surgeon, Ian Whyte is now a painter based at Inverness Creative Academy. He has exhibited extensively throughout Scotland, with exhibitions in Inverness, Aberdeen, Perth and Edinburgh. In 2023, Ian staged Open the eyes of your heart at Scottish Parliament, which portrayed the forced migration and the experiences of those fleeing war zones in Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

A central theme in Ian’s practice is the exploration of human relationships and emotions through intimate portraits, often in response to contemporary social and political issues such as conflict, migration and the concept of the ‘fear of the other’.

Of his motivation to paint the Palestinian people, Ian said: ‘Our sense of helplessness and inability to do something to bring an end to the genocide and dispossession of the Palestinians in the West Bank led us to direct our creative energies to producing this work.’

Dot Walker was a nurse for 10 years before taking up art full-time. She has travelled extensively and spent two years in Nazareth in the early 90s, working in the emergency department of hospitals there.

Dot has said of her experience in Palestine and the touring exhibition: ‘While Nazareth was a relatively peaceful place, I quickly became aware of the injustice and suffering affecting the Arab population. I also fell in love with the food, music, culture and language, and was overwhelmed by their hospitality and warm friendship. I stay in touch with many friends that I made during my time in Palestine to this day. Also, my husband travels to Palestine annually to do medical teaching, and I accompany him when possible, which has strengthened my ties even further. This exhibition is in some small way a response to what I have seen there. To speak up may change nothing, but to remain silent means they have changed me.’