Meet the Artist: Exhibition Tour1

Celebrating Syrian Art in Exile

Come along to the first of two exhibition tours to meet Ammar Azzouz & Khalda Alkhmri and hear more about their life and work.

This event is part of Celebrating Syria 2022: a Festival of Arts and Culture. For the full festival programme, please visit celebratingsyria.org

The Exhibition

For over a decade the war in Syria has led to the displacement of over half of the population from their homes. Of those, over 6.6 million people have found refuge outside Syria. In their exile, Syrian artists have continued their cultural and artistic production. In this exhibition, five UK-based Syrian artists showcase their work as they reflect on and engage with this year’s festival theme: Distance.

For more information about the exhibition and opening times, please visit: https://www.celebratingsyria.org/event-details/celebrating-syrian-art-in-exile

(Image: The Wound by Ammar Azzouz)

Ammar Azzouz

Ammar Azzouz is a London-based architect, artist and writer. He has been working at Arup, London since 2017, and in 2019, he joined the University of Oxford as a Short-Term Research Associate. Ammar completed his PhD in Architecture at the University of Bath, UK. He is also a Collective Member at CITY academic journal and an editor at Arab Urbanism. His work has been published on several platforms including the Independent, the New Statesman and the Architects’ Journal. His book on domicide, the killing of home, will be published by Bloomsbury in 2023. Twitter: @Dr_Ammar_Azzouz

Khalda Alkhmri

Khalda Alkhmri is an artist working predominantly in painting. She previously worked as a director and coordinator of programmes for Syrian TV from 2005 to 2012, and has frequently exhibited her work. Khalda has a Masters degree in Fine Arts from Helwan University in Egypt and has multiple solo exhibitions in Syria. In 2018 she jointly exhibited at Rethink Rebuild Society in Manchester with her sister, Manya.

Khalda is a member of CIWA, a collective of international women artists based in the North-West of England. In 2017-18 the group of artists met through the Travelling Heritage Bureau project and participated in collective exhibitions and performances at HOME Mcr during Refugee Week, Thread Bearing Witness exhibition at The Whitworth Art Gallery with artist Alice Kettle, A Room of One’s Own at Zellij Arts, and Still I Rise at Manchester Art Gallery. In 2021, Khalda joined In Place of War Creative and Social Entrepreneur Programme and took part in Horizons Festival organised by HOME and Community Arts North West.

“My art work varies between the expressionist, the symbolic, and the abstract. For me, the work is always preceded by the idea, and is never random. In portraits, I focus on various being states, especially in women. I aim to move the viewer from one state of mind to another and allow for more than one interpretation depending on the viewer.”