Omar Hamdi "Malva"

An Austrian artist of Syrian origin called Malva. Omar Hamdi "Malva" ranks among Austria's most famous contemporary artists, an impressionist distinguished for his rich, lush landscapes of the European countryside.

Malva grew up in Damascus where he would desperately try to paint whenever he could gather paints and cloth or canvas. After an experience of expatriation and exile, Malva made it to Vienna to be with his new wife and son. The first years in Vienna were a struggle raising a family and making little money for his paintings. He soon lost his battle to keep his family together and suffered more years of depression and hardship.

After 16 years away from his homeland, he received an official invitation to be a guest of honor at The Festival of Friendship and Peace where he participated with four large-sized works. this was a fruitful time and Malva was gaining international success for his paintings. In the 1970's Malva began exhibiting throughout Europe and the popularity of his work grew. In the midst of the tumultuous wave of abstractions, Malva was establishing his artistic oeuvre on the basics of hard reconciliation between inclination of the east and the abstraction of the west and even between life and art.

French Impressionism, appeard to be more necessary and a new experience in colour...lighting or even painting light with light itself, while facing the immediate nature; such enchanting details, including the intergradations of colour and their fertility, the spell of nature, the metamorphosis of coloured light across vast distances, the discernment of minute details of the movements of grass, flowers and trees and the play of water together with the reflections of light...All that was a new and exciting experience in the course of time.

Malva is considered a leader of the new, vibrant style of Impressionism taking it into modern times. this extensive color palette spreads delicately and sensitively across the canvas with enormous skill. His brush is like the wind, feeling the movement of his surroundings.

The first years as a migrant, especially after the departure of his children, created inside himself a certain measure of endurance, cruelty and challenge. His homeland, Syria, has remained a memory, growing with him in his lonliness over the years. Solely the painted canvas has been a form of self-defense for him.

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Solo Exhibitions "Selection"

1976-1977 - Peoples Art Hall at Damascus National Museum of Aleppo.
1989 - Vienna, Austrian Central Bank, Art Gallery, Chicago.
1992 - Wally Findlay Galleries, New York
2000 - Green Art Gallery, Dubai UAE

Group Exhibitions "Selection"

1980-1992 - Exhibitions of the General Federation of Austrian Artists, in Austria.
1993 - The annual World Air Fair, Frankfurt, Germany.
1999 - Inormelle Tendenzen in “Konstler Haus” Vienna.

Collections "Selection"

1976 - “Malva Omar Hamdi, Life and Color in Arabic Damascus"
1997 - “Malva Omar Hamdi, 20 years of painting art Forum."
“Who’s Who International Art 1994-1995 Switzerland.