Skoto Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition
of etchings by master printmaker Mohammad Omer
Khalil and photograph by Pierre Chanloup. There
will be a reception for the artists on Thursday,
January 26th, 6-8pm.
Mohammad Omer Khalil will present
large-scale etchings drawn from his ongoing "The Petra
Series" which he started 1989-90 and consist
of two or three plates printed on separate
sheets of paper and then joined together to
produce a larger image. Printed separately,
with an unusual devotion to black and white
overlaid with layers upon layers of patterns
and textures, the various sides join but never
override their own individual quality. These
etchings exemplify a unity of purpose and visual
effect as the artist utilizes endless technical
possibilities in printmaking to develop ideas
and evoke emotions in subtle tones and a variety
of surface qualities. They represent the artist's
response to an environment, a historical site
in Jordan of compelling natural beauty filled
with architectural wonders and ancient mysteries.
The ancient desert city of Petra is a site
of soaring edifices and rock walls. It is often
referred to as the "rose-red city" because
of it's sandstone cliffs that are veined with
shades of red, purple, orange, gray, white,
and pale yellow. Mohammad's abstractions impact
an environmental sensibility to the viewer
even though no specific or recognizable location
can be identified. There are hints of structures,
vast distances, natural forms and ambiguities
%u2013 all handled as abstractions rather than
as a narrative, allowing the viewer an experience
with the real world.
Mohammad Omer Khalid was born in Burri, Sudan
in 1936 and graduated from the School of Fine
and Applied Art in Khartoum in 1959. He proceeded
to Florence, Italy in 1963, where he studied
fresco painting and developed his printmaking
techniques. He has been living in New York
City for over 30 years and has taught at several
institutions including New York University,
Columbia University, Pratt Institute and The
New School University among others. As a master
printer in his own atelier in New York, his
commissions include printing editions for internationally
known artists such as Louise Nevelson and Romare
Bearden and Jim Dine. He is widely traveled
and has participated in numerous exhibitions
in Africa, Middle East, Europe, Asia and the
Americas. Major awards include 2001 and 2003
National Academy First Prize in Printmaking;
1993 First Prize International Biennial of
Cairo and 1991 Bronze Prize Osaka, Japan. His
work is in several private collections as well
as in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan
Museum, New York, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn,
NY; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Grenoble
Museum, Grenoble, France, Institut du Monde
Arabe, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, Osaka Japan;
The Jordanian National Museum, Amman, Jordan,
Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad, Iraq and The
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington DC.
Pierre Chanloup's debut exhibition in New
York provides us with a rare opportunity to
get acquainted with an aspect of his work that
is hardly seen in public. An accomplished photographer,
he worked for many years in advertising and
the fashion world in France.
He is presenting a selection of color photographs
from The Still Lifes Series drawn from classic
Dutch paintings. Highly precise and strong
in perspective, they are remarkable for their
sensitive use of natural illumination and luscious
colors. There is a poetic quality to these
hyper-realistic compositions and the overall
effect is of richness, clarity, sensuality
and sophistication.
Pierre Chanloup was born 1945 in Paris and
developed an early interest in photography
while growing up around an Italian cousin,
the master photographer Attilio del Commune,
- well-known for his formal portraits of influential
personalities such as the pope, political figures,
business leaders and society elites. He attended
the School of Graphic Art in Milan, Italy for
two years studying photographic techniques
before moving to Paris where he furthered his
training under Jean Pierre Ronzen, a major
figure in advertising in France in the 1960s
and widely-recognized for his successful Volkswagen
and Porsche publicity campaigns during this
period.
He also assimilated the photographic
techniques of leading figures in the advertising
world
of the time such as Georges Dambier, Pierre
Rouchon, Sam Levin, Roland de Vassal and attracted
the attention of important publicists for several
artistic projects including high quality catalogues
for "Le Bon Marche", as well as posters
for "Pierre Marly Optique" that garnered
critical acclaim by notable personalities such
as Patrick Demarchelier and his contemporaries
Claude Guillaumin, Jean Francois Jouvelle of
the French Press.
In 1968, his career was interrupted
by a life-threatening illness and for many
years, his will to survive
and create helped restore his health. He soon
became one of the top photographers at Universal
Photo. During his stint at the agency, Pierre
Chanloup realized a number of projects including
portraits of celebrities such as Michel Debre,
Francois Mitterand, Eugene Ionesco, the journalists
Georges Cukor and Philip Labro and Yves Montand.
He later became picture editor of Magazines
de Luxe International Style & Princess.
During the 1980s he met Maurice Siegel, an
important personality in the Press who hired
him to take charge of the photography section
of VSD, an avant-garde concept magazine with
news, visuals, trends and discoveries in society.
He also received a commission at Figaro for
the launching of a TV daily program where he
met and photographed great television personalities.
He has also done work with top models such
as Ines Sastre and Werner for Elle magazine.
He is represented internationally by agencies
such as Gamma and Still Press.
