Ali Omar Ermes (, born 1945) was a Libyan artist and author. His paintings make use of
Arabic calligraphy
Arabic calligraphy is the artistic practice of penmanship, handwriting and calligraphy based on the Arabic alphabet. It is known in Arabic language, Arabic as ''khatt'' (), derived from the words 'line', 'design', or 'construction'. Kufic is the ...
, often superimposed on a rich-textured ground, and may incorporate fragments of Arabic or other poetry or prose. He had lived in the United Kingdom since 1981, and was the chairman of the
Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in
Kensington
Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London.
The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...
in west London; he was also active in other intellectual and cultural institutions in that city.
Biography
Ermes was born in
Zliten
Zliten () is a city in Murqub District of Libya. It is located 160 km to the capital of Tripoli.
Geography
The name Zliten is given to both the city and the whole area. As a city, Zliten is situated east of the capital, Tripoli, and abo ...
in
Libya
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...
in 1945. He studied at the
University of Plymouth School of Architecture and Design in
Plymouth
Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...
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.
['A lifetime of painting', Venetia Porter, Q News No: 302 & 303, London, 1 March 1999]
Exhibitions
Ermes has shown work at the
State Hermitage
The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...
,
St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
(November 2007); the
Fowler Museum
The Fowler Museum at UCLA (commonly known as The Fowler, and formerly Museum of Cultural History and Fowler Museum of Cultural History) is a museum on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) which explores art and material ...
of the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, USA (October 2007/8); the
National Museum of African Art
The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the Washington, D.C., United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African ar ...
of the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
, USA (May 2007); ''Word into Art'' at the
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
in London, and later
Dubai
Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...
(2006 and 2008); ''East-West: Objects Between Culture at
Tate Britain
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...
'' (September 2006/7) and
Dubai International Financial Centre
The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is a special economic zone in Dubai covering , established in 2004 as a financial hub for companies operating throughout the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (MEASA) markets.
DIFC is regulated ...
, Dubai (March 2008).
References
also the publication Signs of Our Times, From Calligraphy to Calligrafitti, edited by Rose Issa, Merrill publications, London 2016
Further reading
* M. Richardson (1988). The Alphabet of Ali Omar Ermes. ''Arts and the Islamic World'' 4 (4): 33–36
* V. Porter (2006). ''Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East'' (exhibition catalogue). London: British Museum, no. 18.
* Christine Mullen Kreamer, Mary Nooter Roberts, Elizabeth Harney, Allyson Purpura (2007)
Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art ''African Arts'' 40 (3): 78–91. .
* Reem Abdelhadi, Luma Hameed, Fatima Khaled, Jim Anderson (2019)
Creative interactions with art works: an engaging approach to Arabic language-and-culture learning ''Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching''. . .
Articles in Arabic
Ali Omar Ermes – A link between Art and Literature – Arabic articleجماليات الحرف العربي بخلفية ثقافية أصيلة.. غالية الثمنانتقال الفنان العربي «علي عمر الرميص» إلى العالميةعلي الرميص في دار الفنون: كل حرف هو صورة تجريديةالفنان العالمي الليبي علي الرميص ينادي بالسلام بحروف عربية
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110707112152/http://www.aljarida.com/aljarida/Article.aspx?id=50189 علي الرميص يرسم الحروف ويرفض مسخ الطبيعةbr>علي الرميص يصور الكلمة العربية في سياق إنسانيAli Omar Ermes’ exhibition in Mayfair, London, Arabic articleAli Omar Ermes and the Arabic Letterform – Arabic article
Articles by Ali Omar Ermes in Arabic
The importance of the Arabic LanguageAl Arab fil Gharab Part 1Al Arab fil Gharab Part 2The Arab media Part 1The Arab media Part 2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ermes, Ali
1945 births
Libyan Muslims
Libyan painters
20th-century British painters
British male painters
21st-century British painters
British Muslims
Islam in Europe
English people of Libyan descent
Living people
Libyan emigrants to the United Kingdom
Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design
Libyan contemporary artists
20th-century British male artists
21st-century British male artists
Libyan calligraphers