Press Release
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.
