Illustration by Audra McNamee
Omar Khouri was born in London and spent his childhood in Lebanon. In 2002, he graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston with a BFA in illustration. After spending a year in Los Angeles working in cinema and television, he returned to Beirut. In 2006, Khouri founded Samandal comics magazine, the first experimental comics periodical in the Arab world. In 2010, his sociopolitical satire Utopia won Best Arabic Comic book at the Algerian International Comic Book Festival (FIBDA). Khouri work spans many art forms including painting, comics, animation, theatre, film, and music. His work has been exhibited and is held in collections around the world, including Lebanon, the UK, the US, Japan, and across Europe. Recent shows include ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ (2019 – 2020) at the BAR Project Space, Beirut; ‘Glass’ (2018 - 2019) at the Park Gallery, London; and ‘Face Value: Portraiture’ (2018), a group show at Saleh Barakat Gallery, Beirut. Khouri currently lives and works in North Lebanon.
Additional Resources:
https://www.saatchiart.com/omarkhouri
Unstoppable Force by Yazan al-Saadi and Omar Khouri
Instagram: @omar_k_khouri
