Ali Omar Ermes


Ali Omar Ermes is a Libyan artist and author. His paintings make use of Arabic calligraphy, often superimposed on a rich-textured ground, and may incorporate fragments of Arabic or other poetry or prose. He has lived in the United Kingdom since 1981, and is the chairman of the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in Kensington in west London; he is also active in other intellectual and cultural institutions in that city.

Biography

Ermes was born in Tripoli in Libya in 1945. He studied at the University of Plymouth School of Architecture and Design in Plymouth in south-west England, and after his graduation in 1970 returned to Libya. There he wrote extensively and headed the visual arts section of All Arts magazine. In 1974 he was engaged as a "visual arts consultant" for the World of Islam Festival held in London in 1976, and visited many Islamic countries to identify possible participants in the festival. From 1981 he lived in the United Kingdom. Ermes has participated in various Muslim community projects, written about many important issues and has exhibited in some sixty to seventy exhibitions around the world.
Ali Omar Ermes is a writer and a speaker who has published numerous articles in English and Arabic newspapers and magazines, among them Q News and , although today he mainly prepares papers for presentation at conferences. Ermes has spoken at national and international conferences on a variety of social and cultural issues. A selection of his papers includes: ‘Art and Islam’, ‘Contemporary Islamic arts: a positive contribution to London’ ; ‘A glimpse of Islamic heritage’, ‘The invisibility of the Arab community’ ; ‘The importance of faith-based education for the Muslim community’, ‘The Arabic language as a national cultural issue’ ; ‘The Arab media in Britain’ ; ‘Culture beyond stereotype: an artist’s experience’ ; ‘Plural identity and European citizenship’.

Exhibitions

Ermes has shown work at the State Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia ; the Fowler Museum of the University of California, Los Angeles, USA ; the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution, USA ; Word into Art at the British Museum in London, and later Dubai ; ''East-West: Objects Between Culture at Tate Britain and Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai.

Articles in Arabic

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