Eli Emer

Bio

Ali Omar was born in Tabke, in 1986.

He began drawing as a child during summer holidays, receiving his first oil paints at the age of ten. Not knowing at the time the proper use of the materials, he experimented mixing his paints with olive oil to thin them. When he was 13, one of Ali’s teachers told him that art was for losers, and that painters were people who worked in fantasy because they could never accomplish anything in reality. Disheartened, he quit painting for a year, but to no avail. He returned to art, resigned to his fate.

Ali’s first formal education in the fine arts was at the painting department of Damascus University, where he studied from 2006 to 2011. Afterwards, he travelled and lived in Erbil for six months, before returning to Tabke.

Ali draws upon his observations of daily life, the casual movements of the people and animals around him. He focuses on addressing both the ‘ugly’ and the ‘beautiful’ aspects of his subjects. His work is informed by an early passion for Rembrandt, especially the focus on the effects of light. Some elements of late 19th/early 20th century art – Van Gogh’s light, Schiele’s lines, Klimt’s motifs – are further influences.

A dominant theme in Ali’s portraits is the i...

DAMASCUS UNIVERSITY, DAMASCUS, SYRIA – 2006-2011
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Department of Painting and Drawing

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Ali omar. kelimat gallery istanbul
2022 Ali omar. kelimat gallery istanbul
2017 Ali Omar artgalerim BEBEK, Istanbul
2016 Ali Omar Galeri Eksen, Nişantaşı, Istanbul
COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
2019 La nuit des idées Institut Français de Turquie, Ankara
2018 13th Annual CI Fair Contemporary Istanbul, Istanbul
2018 Summer Art artgalerim BEBEK, Bodrum

2017 O’Art Yarışma Sergisi 2017 O’Art, Istanbul
2017 Blur (BULANIK) Altı+Bir Gallery, Ankara
2017 12th Annual CI Fair Contemporary Istanbul, Istanbul
2017 Painting, Sculpture & Installation Santralistanbul Enerji Müzesi, Istanbul
2016 Bant mag mevsimler fasil III Bant mag, Kadıköy, Istanbul
2017 Hep birlikte Beşiktaş Çağdaş Galerisi, Istanbul
2016 How we come across Karşı Sanat, Istanbul
2016 Collective exhibition Galeri Eksen, Nisantasi, Istanbul
2016 Hussain Tarabie / Ali Omar Institut des Cultures Arabes et Méditéranénnes,
Geneva, Switzerland
2016 Multiple Existence Odeabank Etiler Branch, Istanbul
2015 L’Ecole de Damas FOOUND, Geneva, Switzerland
2015 Balat’ta Sanat Baskadır Galeri Eksen Balat, Istanbul
2011 Collective exhibition ...