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Malva

 
MALVA/ Omar Hamdi was born in 1951, the first child of a shepherd’s family in Tel Naif a small village in the most northern part of Syria (Al-Hasaka).


MALVA attended primary school and spent his afternoons working to help support his family. His home life was difficult and his desire to become a painter raised a permanent conflict between father and son. As a teenager he worked at the cinema painting posters, writing announcements, and cleaning the cinema hall to help support his family. During that period he painted with intensity trying to creatively express his emotions.


At the age of seventeen he left his family. With thirty-five paintings he traveled to Damascus.  Over the next 10 years he lived, worked and performed his military service in Damascus. During these years he exhibited often in Syria, Egypt, Baghdad, Sofia, Moscow, Bucharest, Belgrade and Budapest.


In 1978, he moved to Vienna to live and work in Europe. His first marriage resulting in three children Oliver, Malva and Sarah soon ended.


His works were first brought to the United States in 1979. In 1984, he received Austrian Nationality and married his second wife. They have two children Nora and Avin. Since 1985, MALVA has been showing his work in exhibitions and art galleries throughout Europe and the United States. He is now celebrated

world wide as an artist of immense stature.


From Art Forum:


“The art of MALVA/Omar Hamdi brings an impressionistic classicism back to the world of art.  It is a matter of contrasts: the strength of nature described in strong pastel colors and the roundness of the form; the dialogue between soaring spirit and the serenity of nature, open spaces confined within the boundaries of a canvas.”


MALVA who is now a very famous and successful artist in Europe and America, has won a place in the most prestigious collections and galleries, as well as in publications (Who is Who, International Art Lexicon) and at international art fairs.