Albareh Art Gallery to Showcase latest Artworks by Prominent Sudanese Artist Mohammed Omar Khalil

Bahrain, February 2012: Albareh Art Gallery presents a solo exhibition “A Bridge between Two Worlds” by Prominent Sudanese Artist, Mohammed Omar Khalil. The exhibition will take place at Albareh Art Gallery, from 2nd – 29th February 2012.

Mohamed Omar Khalil reveals 15 of his recent works, starting with Paolo Uccello in Italy then going to Marrakech and Fez, stopping in the “Souk‟, near the “Hand of Fatima”, watching the “Snake Charmers of Jamaa al Fanaa‟, talking to the “One-eyed Kamel‟, and reaching finally the United States with a film entitled “The birdman of Alcatraz‟. A bizarre group of paintings gathered in this exhibition to express his inspiration, nostalgia and dreams. Forming a bridge between past and present, the well-constructed paintings of Mohamed Omar Khalil expose the deep search for forgotten memories and the longing for an imaginary world.

The fascination with Paolo Uccello's works “The Battle of San Romano”, when he first saw them back in 1963, led Khalil to produce three diptychs, which was exhibited in February 2010 here in Bahrain, still haunts him. So today, in the new series of paintings, he goes back to the Battle of San Romano with six art works, but this time he is no longer focusing on the paintings but addressing the painter directly and calling him in a friendly, warm, manner “Paulo‟.

Morocco has another dimension in his work. A country close to his heart, he visits it regularly since 1978. For him, the streets are a source of permanent inspiration. This is where he finds images, textures, and pieces of wood, of paper, of metal… that he later integrates in the etchings and paintings according to his needs.

In this exhibition artist Khalil exhibits two interesting pieces “tondos‟ on Marrakech. The Italian connection appears as “tondo‟ is a Renaissance term for a circular work of art and the word derives from the Italian rotondo meaning “round.

Born just a few kilometres from Khartoum, Mohammed Omar Khalil remained in his homeland until 1963 where he studied and later taught at the School of Fine and Applied Arts. He pursued further studies in fresco painting and printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. By 1967, Khalil had moved to New York City, USA, where he still lives, works, and teaches at Parsons the New School for Design.

Having attained worldwide recognition, Khalil's works (in particular his etchings) now grace many collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Jordanian National Museum, Amman; Brooklyn Museum, New York; and the Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad. His work has also been auctioned at both Christie's and Sotheby's in their sales of Modern and Contemporary Art from the Middle East and Arab world.