Bahrain Authority
for Culture and Antiquities

Since time immemorial, birds have held a special significance for the human spirit. Khalil AlHashimi also carried a deep fascination with seagulls since his early childhood in the coastlines of Manama. Birds, unlike other creatures have the choice to be bound to the land by their feet, but also to transcend it through flying.

 
This is why birds have come to symbolize the ethereal qualities that humans strive for like peace, love and harmony.
Khalil has been for years translating this inherent enigma in nature, of the material and ethereal, through his bird abstractions. The gravity-defying grace of the birds, he hopes, will symbolize the potential of human beings to transcend their prejudices, divisions and conflicts.

 
Educated in the fine arts in Russia, Khalil Al Hashimi is one of Bahrain’s most renowned sculptors. Working predominantly in bronze, stone and wood, this artist’s works are versatile in their material and in the concepts that drive them. The artist’s particular strength is his ability to transform the nonphysical into the physical and reduce ideas to their bare elements, resulting in his abstracted and minimal aesthetic. The artist’s Bird series of 2010 has achieved an iconic status, marked by elegance of composition and superior execution. Khalil Al Hashimi has been exhibited widely throughout the Middle East and Europe. In Bahrain his work has shown at the Bahrain National Museum, the Bin Matar House and Albareh Art Gallery.