Khaled al-Khani

Khaled al-Khani (born 17 February 1975 in Hama, Syria) is a Syrian painter, currently living in Paris. Following the Syrien revolt, he has made manifest his anti-regime stance.^[1]

Work

An artist employing a variety of supports for his work, including oil painting, and mural painting.

The human as an individual or in the crowd is at the heart of the work of Al-Khani.^[1] Woman are also an important subject in his paintings.

In Khaled al-Khani's work, we find a development similar to the works of may artists of the German Expressionist movement beginning before the period of the First World War, such as Otto Dix.^[1]

Memories of the conflict in Syria have a profound influence on his work. Regarding his representation of Um Ibrahim, he says: One might ask why I am drawing Um Ibrahim in such a beautiful way, as a pretty woman. In my mind, I remember the old woman Um Ibrahim's image, this is more beautiful than a pretty girl, this woman who opposed the killers in 1982. I see her as an image, in a higher place, that needs to be painted. In fact, my painting are closely related to my memories of what happened in Hama, it comes from my childhood, what I witnessed daily, memories of the Hama massacre. Such events leave a deep-cut memory in me that is hard to remove. I believe, in my artistic process, these memories are visible in my paintings. It has something to do with how I see the woman. The woman, the most essential and available person, she was the hero of my paintings.^[2]

Early years

Khaled al-Khani was born in the ancient neighborhood of Albarodiah in Hama. At the age of seven, he loses his father, an ophthalmologist savagely killed during the Hama Massacre under the presidency of Hafez el-Assad in February 1982.^[1] As a child, his mother notices his passion for drawing and colorimetry and encourages him to pursue this area. As an adolescent, he starts to visit the atelier of Sohail Alahdab, where he learns various pictorial techniques and clay modeling. After graduating from school, he moves to Damascus to pursue studies at the school of Fine Arts. As a student, he starts to sell immediately his paintings to pay his costs. In 1998, he obtains his diploma in painting, in 2000 obtaining his Master's degree.

Work in Damas

The Damascus gallery Naseer Shura receives the first three exhibitions of Khaled al-Khani, in 1999, 2000 and 2001. The dominant colour in these series is brown, and the esthetic employs effects of contre-jour. His presentation to the Arab artistic scene begins in Kuwait, where he presents his first exhibition at the Museum of Baytlothan in 2001, followed by another exhibition the following year at the Boushahri Gallery. Individual exhibitions take place in Dubai, Jordan and Lebanon. In parallel to solo shows, Khaled takes part in various group exhibitions including one organized by Alsayed gallery at Damascus.^[3] He also participates in various artistic events including the symposium of painting and sculpture of Ehden which takes place every year at Mount Lebanon. His paintings from late 2010 show a difference from previous work, with the colours becoming brighter, although the subjects of the painting appear to follow a narrative thread, as if each painting were a fixed moment in a long novel.^[4]

Work in Paris

Three months following the popular upheaval, Khaled al-Khani is forced to escape his country. He is wanted for his part in popular demonstrations in Damas against the President Bachar el-Assad and for having published a series of articles denouncing the 1982 massacre at Hama, for many years a taboo subject in the history of Syria.^[1] He arrives in Paris in June 2011, where he waits for one year before taking up his work again. Horrified by the violence unleashed in his country, very violent imagery emerges in his painting, depicting deformed figures, disfigured faces, and the agitated masses.^[4]

In 2012, he exhibits work at the La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. In February 2013, he does a second collaboration for the gallery Cheloudiakoff in Belfort.

In 2012 he did various exhibitions in the Middle East including "Non-Stop Dancing" at the Orient gallery in Amman.^[5]

In 2013, the museum Kunsthalle zu Kiel in Kiel, Germany, invited Khaled al-Khani exhibit a mural painting in the museum itself.^[6] In a large viewing gallery, Khaled painted in an expressionist style scenes that appear to be extracted from everyday life in Syria.^[7] In the beginning of 2014, his exhibition Portrait is held at the la galerie Europa in Paris.^[8]

In 2014–5, he was a participant in the Syrian cultural caravan.

External links

• Official website
• The gallery Europia^[9]
• L'artiste Khaled al Khani evokes the suffering of Syrians ^[10] (Arabe)
• Khaled al Khani at the Kunsthalle Kiel, "The Beginning" ^[11]

References