-
Exhibition view of Homeland Under My Nails. Image by Andy Stagg, courtesy The Mosaic Rooms.
-
Exhibition view of Homeland Under My Nails. Image by Andy Stagg, courtesy The Mosaic Rooms.
-
Sawakin (1965) Mohammad Omar Khalil. Photo by Andy Stagg, courtesy of The Mosaic Rooms
-
Exhibition view of Homeland Under My Nails. Image by Andy Stagg, courtesy The Mosaic Rooms.
-
Exhibition view of Homeland Under My Nails. Image by Andy Stagg, courtesy The Mosaic Rooms.
Exhibition
Homeland Under My Nails
22 Jan 2020 – 26 Apr 2020
Regular hours
- Wednesday
- 11:00 – 18:00
- Thursday
- 11:00 – 18:00
- Friday
- 11:00 – 18:00
- Saturday
- 11:00 – 18:00
- Sunday
- 11:00 – 18:00
- Tuesday
- 11:00 – 18:00
Address
- Tower House
- 226 Cromwell Road
- London
England - SW5 0SW
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Earls Court Tube
Mohammad Omar Khalil is a master printmaker, artist and mentor. He is one of the most significant artists of his generation from Sudan and the Arab world.
About
Mohammad Omar Khalil (b. 1936) is a painter, master printmaker and mentor. Practicing since the 1960s, he is one of the most significant artists of his generation from Sudan and the Arab world. Homeland Under My Nails, curated by Abed Al Kadiri, presents prints by Khalil from throughout his career. It is the first major UK solo exhibition of his work.The exhibition opens with a series of self-portraits and early works. Khalil, now 83, has long experimented with self-portraits as a means of self-transformation. Much of the artist’s early work was destroyed in the flood that hit Sudan’s capital in 1988. The few works that survived are displayed here alongside early experimentations from the artist’s time studying at the Academy of Florence, showing the evolution of his style.
The exhibition then looks at the international sensibility of the artist, who trained in Sudan and Italy, and has lived and worked between New York (USA) and Asilah (Morocco) since the 1970s.
A search for light and the use of black is the driving force in Khalil’s work. He says: “In blackness, I see degrees and shades of rich, complicated colour, more intense than in other colours, roaring and loud.”
Mohammad Omar Khalil’s work is significant to the Arab modernist movement and to the history of International Modernism. His work moves across continents, seeking connections, drawing together influences from North Africa, most significantly for the artist from Sudan and Morocco, and from the European canon.
Sudan continues to be a point of orientation for Khalil who says: “My homeland exists in my nails, it expresses itself whenever I create an artwork.” This exhibition is a long overdue celebration of his life’s work.
Homeland Under My Nails is curated by Abed Al Kadiri with The Mosaic Rooms. A special series of events, including a conversation with the artist, accompanies the exhibition.
