Omar Hassan (born 11 March 1987) is an Italian contemporary artist. He lives in Milan and works in Milan and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Biography

Omar Hassan was born in 1987 in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, to an Italian mother and an Egyptian father. His best friend, a prolific graffiti artist, encouraged a 15-year-old Omar to join him in experimenting on the walls of his native city. Hassan later witnessed his best friend fall to his death in one of Milan's tunnels. The tragedy proved a formative event for Hassan. The artist felt compelled to explore various paths, experimenting with a significant talent for boxing and fearless creative risks. However, after 10 years of training in the ring, Hassan was forced to abandon his love of boxing and the lure of competitive sport when a diagnosis of diabetes was discovered – disqualifying him from professional boxing on the grounds of health and safety. Being unable to fully explore this passion, Hassan returned to his other love; investing all his energy into his artistic practice. Being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, Hassan raised money for

Diabetes UK Diabetes UK is a British-based patient, healthcare professional and research charity that has been described as "one of the foremost diabetes charities in the UK". The charity campaigns for improvements in the care and treatment of people wit ...

via selling a piece of performance art he created at the private view of his exhibition ‘Breaking Through’. Hassan collaborated with artist

Helidon Xhixha Helidon Xhixha is a contemporary artist born in Durrës, Albania, in December 1970. Xhixha is known for his stainless steel sculptures, which is often fused with other mediums such as marble or brass. Early life and education Born into a family ...

to support Diabetes Research Institute Foundation (DRI) at an art event in Miami. Hassan graduated from the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

of Fine Arts in 2010, and after several group and solo exhibitions, he was invited by

Vittorio Sgarbi Vittorio Umberto Antonio Maria Sgarbi (born 8 May 1952) is an Italian art critic, art historian, writer, politician, cultural commentator, and television personality. He is president of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rove ...

; curator of the Italian Pavilion, to exhibit at the 2011 54th

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

Technique

In a series of paintings, Hassan performs a painting technique inspired by his boxing career. This involves dipping his boxing gloves into paint and punching onto a large canvas. He uses some classical references in his work, such as Nike taking off the sandal, but also takes some influence from Islamic art. Additionally, he creates sculptures and patterns from the spray painting materials he uses. His series of paintings called Injections, are single dots of colour with streams of paint issuing from the nucleus. They refer to his daily shots of insulin from being diabetic.

Public works

Hassan has created several public works in Italy and the UK. These include One Wall at the Palazzo della Regione in Milan, the Museo Mille Miglia in Brescia, the Accademia delle Belle Arti Aldo Galli in Como and Colour Cube in London's

Brick Lane Brick Lane () is a street in the East End of London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, borough of Tower Hamlets. It runs from Swanfield Street in Bethnal Green in the north, crosses the Bethnal Green Road before reaching the busiest, mo ...

. The latter work was created by redecorating a concrete bollard located alongside the East London Line. They all make use of his signature motif found in the injections series.

Solo exhibitions

2009
- ''Gaijin'', Musashy Gallery,

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. 2011
- ''H.O.2'', Fabbrica Eos,

. 2012
- ''Jab, Jab!!'', Colossi Arte Contemporanea,

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

. 2014
- ''L'essenziale è Invisibile agli Occhi'', Castle, Montesegale. 2015
- ''Breaking Through'', ContiniArtUK,

.
- ''Breaking Through — Miami'', Rosenbaum Contemporary,

Bal Harbour, Florida Bal Harbour is a village in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The village is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The population was 3,093 at the 2020 US Census. History Since the 1920s, the Detroit-based Miami Beach Heights Corpo ...

. 2016
- ''Breaking Through Milan'', M.A.C centre,

.
- ''Breaking Through New York'', UNIX Gallery,

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. 2017
- ''Do ut Des'',

Abbazia della Misericordia Opatija (; ; ) is a town and a municipality in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in northwestern Croatia. The traditional seaside resort on the Kvarner Gulf is known for its Mediterranean climate and its historic buildings reminiscent of the Austrian ...

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

2018
- ''L’essenziale è invisibile agli occh'i - Dialogue with Kandinsky'' Villa Reale di Monza, Monza (ITALY) 2019
- ''Breaking Through Black''

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

2020
- ''Sotto Sopra'', curated by Maria Savarese,Palazzo delle Arti Napoli,

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

- ''SopraSotto'', Prometeo Gallery by Ida Pisani,

2021
- ''Breaking Through Berlin'', Luisa Catucci Gallery,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

2022
- ''Il Mondo è N(v)OSTRO'', Fondazione Stelline,

2023
- ''PUNCTUM'', Palazzo Reale per Fondazione Federico II,

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

2024
- ''EXIT LIGHTS'', Porta di Milano,

Milan Malpensa Airport Milan Malpensa Airport "Silvio Berlusconi" is an international airport in Ferno, in the Province of Varese, Lombardy, Italy. It is the largest airport in northern Italy, serving Lombardy, Piedmont, and Liguria, as well as the Swiss canton of T ...

Terminal 1 - ''PAX'', Cappella Nuova,

Orta San Giulio Orta San Giulio (Piedmontese and ) is a town and (municipality) in the Province of Novara in the Italian region of Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northwest of Novara. It is one of ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). ...

Gallery

File:Omar Hassan, Rimembranze di Conte Rosso.png,

File:Omar_HassanPalazzo_Regione_Lombardia.png,

File:Omar_Hassan,_Il_Dolce_Far_Nulla.png, Montesegale,

File:OmarHassanBorgio.jpg, Borgio Verezzi,

Selected publications

2013
London Street Art
by Frank Steam156 Malt, 2013.

References

External links

* *
ContiniArtUK Selected Press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hassan, Omar Living people 1987 births Artists from Milan Italian contemporary artists Italian people of Egyptian descent Brera Academy alumni