Omar Kholeif

• Professor of Global Art Theory and Practice
• School of Fine Art

Link to Public Profile

Book or Monograph

Huguette Caland: imagine/otherwise

Kholeif, Omar (2025) Huguette Caland: imagine/otherwise. imagine/otherwise, 5 . Sternberg Press, London and MIT Press, MA, London, UK and Cambridge, MA.

Peter Sedgley: Orbiting an Enigma

Kholeif, Omar (2024) Peter Sedgley: Orbiting an Enigma. The Redfern Gallery, London, United Kingdom. ISBN 9780948460906

Nil Yalter: Circular Tension by Omar Kholeif

Kholeif, Omar (2024) Nil Yalter: Circular Tension by Omar Kholeif. Mousse Publishing, Milan, Italy. ISBN 9788867496297

Internet_Art: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs

Kholeif, Omar (2023) Internet_Art: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs. Phaidon, London and New York. ISBN 9781838664077

In the Heart of Another Country

Kholeif, Omar (2023) In the Heart of Another Country. Snoeck and Deichtorhallen, Cologne, Germany. ISBN 9783864423994

Book Section

Double Fantasy: Learning, Living and Loving with Ibrahim Massouda: A Surrealist Egyptian Story?

Kholeif, Omar (2026) Double Fantasy: Learning, Living and Loving with Ibrahim Massouda: A Surrealist Egyptian Story? In: The Color and Lyricism of Alberto Massuda. Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Brazil, pp. 140-149.

RO U T I N G H O M E W I T H C A R L O S B U N G A

Kholeif, Omar (2025) RO U T I N G H O M E W I T H C A R L O S B U N G A. In: Carlos Bunga: Inhabit the Contradiction. Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa, Lenz Press, Milan and Distributed Art Publishers, New York, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 102-123. ISBN 9791280579928

Would it be okay if we told a story? Hoda Tawakol and Me

Kholeif, Omar (2025) Would it be okay if we told a story? Hoda Tawakol and Me. In: Hoda Tawakol: Some Ties Linger On. Kerber Verlag. ISBN 9783735610072

Simone Fattal: Charting a Territory to take Flight

Kholeif, Omar (2024) Simone Fattal: Charting a Territory to take Flight. In: Simone Fattal: Suspension of Disbelief. IVAM: Institute of Modern Art, Valencia, Spain. ISBN 9788448270377

All Things Unsettled, Remain

Kholeif, Omar (2024) All Things Unsettled, Remain. In: Helen Khal: Gallery One and Beirut in the 1960s. Sternberg Press; The MIT Press, artPost21, London, UK and Cambridge, MA, pp. 118-175. ISBN 9781915609212

EGYPTIAN CINEMA: Dreaming of a fugitive culture

Kholeif, Omar (2024) EGYPTIAN CINEMA: Dreaming of a fugitive culture. In: Routledge Handbook on Arab Cinema. Routledge, London, pp. 389-395. ISBN 9781032295336

Seeing with Hassan Sharif

Kholeif, Omar (2023) Seeing with Hassan Sharif. In: The Art Library: Hassan Sharif. Discovering Arab Artists . Rizzoli New York, New York, USA, pp. 20-30. ISBN 9788891837738

I Can't Breathe: Black Life and the Metaverse

Kholeif, Omar (2023) I Can't Breathe: Black Life and the Metaverse. In: I'll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen. Delmonico Books, D.A.P, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, New York, USA, pp. 168-178. ISBN 9781636810959

Lawrence Abu Hamdan: The Lives of Sonified Images

Kholeif, Omar (2022) Lawrence Abu Hamdan: The Lives of Sonified Images. In: Lawrence Abu Hamdan: The Sonic Image. Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE, pp. 5-14.

Where Do Pictures Live?

Kholeif, Omar (2021) Where Do Pictures Live? In: Hrair Sarkissian: The Other Side of Silence. Lenz Press, Milan, Italy, pp. 26-37. ISBN 9791280579010

Article

Accumulating Vocabularies: Parsing Through Otobong Nkanga’s Aesthetic Language

Kholeif, Omar (2026) Accumulating Vocabularies: Parsing Through Otobong Nkanga’s Aesthetic Language. NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, 58. ISSN Print: 1075-7163; Online: 2152-7792

Lubaina Himid: Do You Want an Easy Life?

Kholeif, Omar (2024) Lubaina Himid: Do You Want an Easy Life? NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, 54 (2). pp. 6-23. ISSN Print: 1075-7163; Online: 2152-7792

Show/Exhibition

Finding My Blue Sky: The Search for Feeling in Art, Again

Kholeif, Omar (2025) Finding My Blue Sky: The Search for Feeling in Art, Again. Lisson Grove, Lisson Gallery, Bell Street Galleries, 29th of May - 26th July 2025 [Show/Exhibition]

Light on Things / Ghosts Sheltering Beneath a Cloud of Entropy

Kholeif, Omar (2025) Light on Things / Ghosts Sheltering Beneath a Cloud of Entropy. Central Museum/Hartwig Art Foundation/Lanhuis Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands, 12 April - 26 October 2025 [Show/Exhibition]

Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska: Nets for Night and Day

Kholeif, Omar (2025) Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska: Nets for Night and Day. MUDAM - The Modern Art Museum of Luxembourg, 7 March - 24 August 2025 [Show/Exhibition]

Drawing Time: Duets

Kholeif, Omar (2024) Drawing Time: Duets. Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE, 4 May - 4 August 2024 [Show/Exhibition]

Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska: Plaited Time / Deep Water

Kholeif, Omar (2023) Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska: Plaited Time / Deep Water. Sharjah Art Foundation, Al Mureijah Square, UAE, 29 October 2023 - 29 January 2024 [Show/Exhibition]

Hrair Sarkissian: The Other Side of Silence

Kholeif, Omar (2022) Hrair Sarkissian: The Other Side of Silence. The Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Netherlands, 29 November 2022 - 13 May 2023 [Show/Exhibition]

In the Heart of Another Country

Kholeif, Omar (2022) In the Heart of Another Country. Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany, and Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE, 28 October 2022 - 12 September 2023 [Show/Exhibition]

Unsettled Objects

Kholeif, Omar (2021) Unsettled Objects. The Flying Saucer, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE, 30 March -15 June 2021 [Show/Exhibition]