Hassan Meer

Hassan Meer is the recipient of several awards and is one of the best-known Omani artists internationally. He grew up in Muscat and later went on to complete his BA and MA in Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia, USA. While abroad he began to develop his practices in both painting and video art. He is one of the artists that Anwar Sonja mentored closely during his time at the Youth Studio. Upon his return to Muscat, he formed an art collective known as ‘The Circle’ with a group of his pioneering peers and organised the first Circle exhibition in the late 1990s. The inaugural and subsequent Circle editions have aimed to nurture and promote experimental art methodologies in Oman. The Circle has gained a wide following and reach beyond Muscat, and now includes artists and collaborators spanning the rest of the Gulf, Pakistan, Lebanon, South Africa, Austria, Japan, Morocco, and Germany.

Meer’s ultimate aim was to channel this mission into an exhibition space, which has been achieved through his directorship at Muscat’s Stal Gallery. Meer’s body of work, and his contributions to the local art scene through The Circle, amongst other things, has made him a regional pioneer and founder of the local conceptual and experimental art movement. Known for his diverse multimedia practices produced in large scales which he has presented locally and internationally, Meer frequently makes use of video installations and staged photo series, focussing on local narratives within the history of Oman, with a particular interest in cultural history and spirituality. Since 2000, numerous solo exhibitions as well as participations in group exhibitions, including the Kunstmuseum Bonn; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; Mori Museum, Tokyo; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark.