Omar Kholeif

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

Link to Public Profile

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

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

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.

Drawing Time: Duets

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

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

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]

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]

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.

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

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]

In the Heart of Another Country

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

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

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.

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]

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]

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

Nil Yalter: Circular Tension by Omar Kholeif

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

Peter Sedgley: Orbiting an Enigma

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

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

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

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

Unsettled Objects

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

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

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