Mohammed Omar Khalil

Mohammed Omar Khalil (b. 1936, Khartoum, Sudan) has lived and worked in New York City since 1967. Khalil is one of the Arab world’s most important contemporary painters, having influenced two generations of regional artists. His work, spanning over forty years and the disciplines of both painting and print-making, holds a privileged position in the canon of modern Arab art as it searches for a dialogue between dissimilar cultures. Profoundly influenced by his travels throughout Africa and the Middle East, and the European art history that he was immersed in during his studies in Italy, Khalil has brought to life a pioneering form of art, in which elements and patterns from tradition merge with pop art and fine prints.

A master print-maker in his own right, Mohammed Omar Khalil has also been working with etching throughout his whole career, using the age-old technique of the European masters. He has developed a composite grammar of omnipresent blackness, retrieving a primal simplicity as both the preferred site for his cosmopolitan observations and the stage for his many aesthetic interventions, which sooner or later find their way into the more colorful canvases.