Mohammad Omer Khalil: Common Ground Book Launch

Join us on Sunday, October 25, at 2pm, for the release of the inaugural Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (RBPMW) Publication, Mohammad Omer Khalil: Common Ground edited by Amina Ahmed and Jenna Hamed.

The afternoon will bring together readings and open conversations with the artist, Master Printmaker Mohammad Omer Khalil, joined by Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Artistic Director and Master Printmaker Jazmine Catasús, Director of Programs and Partnerships Essye Klempner, contributing writers Tumelo Mosaka and Omar Berrada, Sudanese singer, songwriter and ethnomusicologist, Alsarah; Mohammad Omer Khalil: Common Ground exhibition curators and publication editors, Amina Ahmed and Jenna Hamed; and friends.

Mohammad Omer Khalil: Common Ground is a collection of essays, artwork & studio documentation, with archival ephemera, chronicling Khalil’s formative years. Starting with early schooling, his journey from Sudan to Italy in 1963, and his arrival in New York in 1967. The book traces significant milestones in Khalil’s career: his friendship with Robert Blackburn, the founding of MOK Studio, and his forty years of teaching. Khalil’s 1978 journey to Asilah, Morocco, with Blackburn and Camille Billops marked the inaugural season of the annual Cultural Moussem. A formal invitation from festival founders Mohamed Melehi and Mohamed Benaissa followed, beginning Khalil’s twenty-seven year leadership of the Engraver's Atelier. Seven decades of paintings and etchings speak to Khalil’s technical mastery and the profound influence of music, literature, and travel on his art.

The publication was developed for Mohammad Omer Khalil: Common Ground, the multi-city exhibition initiated and anchored at the Blackburn Study Center in March 2026, with Khalil’s works simultaneously shown at venues across New York, Philadelphia, and Dearborn. This collaborative publication reflects and extends the Robert Blackburn ethos of community building.

Together with the exhibition documentation, the book presents a foreword by RBPMW co-directors Jazmine Catasús and Essye Klempner; a biographical essay by Amina Ahmed and Jenna Hamed; and contributions by independent curator and writer, Omar Berrada; Curator in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, Tumelo Mosaka; Curator of Islamic Art at The Metropolitan Navina Haidar, and Curator of Drawings and Prints, Jennifer Farrell; Ksenia Nouril; Dr. Bayan Abubakr, Sudanese Historian; Olivia Shao, Curator at The Drawing Center; Sumesh Sharma Curator and founder of the Clark House Initiative Mumbai; Ben Rejali, Editor of Khabar Keslan; and Maryam Sophia Jahanbin, Writer and Researcher. The publication also includes personal reflections from Khalil's children.

Blackburn Study Center Programs & Publications are made possible with major support from the Teiger Foundation.

Mohammad Omer Khalil (b. 1936, Burri, Khartoum, Sudan) is a New York–based Sudanese Artist, Master Printmaker. He studied and taught at the School of Fine and Applied Arts, Khartoum, until 1963, later pursuing fresco, printmaking, and mosaic at the Academy of Fine Arts, Florence. Developing an approach that integrates painting and etching, he immigrated to New York City in 1967. In New York, he established M.O.K., a studio for collaborative print editions, partnering with artists Louise Nevelson, Al Held, and Sean Scully; Pace Gallery; and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. For 27 years, he directed the printmaking workshop in Engravers’ Atalier Asilah, Morocco, and was a 1993 resident at Darat al Funun, Amman. He also mentored and taught generations of printmakers for 40 years at Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, New York University, and Columbia University. His work, comprising paintings, prints, and artists books , was recently featured in the multi-city exhibition Mohammad Omer Khalil: Common Ground, anchored at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop and shown at Twelve Gates Arts, Philadelphia; the Arab American National Museum, Dearborn; and Jay Seven INc., Brooklyn. Public collections include the British Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library, National Academy of Design, and Library of Congress. His paintings are also in the National Archives, Washington, D.C. Internationally, solo exhibitions have been held at Al-Bareh Gallery, Manama; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; and The Mosaic Rooms, London (Homeland Under My Nails, 2019). Presentations include Meem Gallery, Dubai; Mathaf, Doha; Sharjah Art Foundation; and Kunsthalle, Darmstadt. He has participated in numerous biennials, including Ljubljana and Osaka. Honors include First Prize at the 1993 International Cairo Biennale and the 2003 National Academy Award for Printmaking, New York.

Alsarah is a Sudanese singer, songwriter, ethnomusicologist, and cultural producer based in Brooklyn. She leads the internationally acclaimed Alsarah & the Nubatones, whose music explores Sudanese and Nubian traditions, migration, and identity. A former refugee, she co-founded Sunduq Al Sudan and created cultural initiatives supporting displaced Sudanese musicians and communities through music.

Tumelo Mosaka is a Johannesburg-born, New Jersey-based independent curator whose work explores transnational artistic practices across Africa, the Caribbean, and North America. He has curated major international exhibitions and is currently Mellon Arts Project Director in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University.

Omar Berrada is a writer, translator, and curator. He authored the poetry collection Clonal Hum (2020), and (co-)edited several books, including Another Room to Live In: 15 Contemporary Arab Poets (2024). Born and raised in Casablanca, he currently lives in New York.

Jenna Hamed is an artist and art worker based in Queens, New York, with roots in metro Detroit and Jerusalem, Palestine. Her practice brings together curation, editorial, and bookmaking through visual, material, and archival research. In 2024, she founded Jay Seven Inc., a Brooklyn-based collaboration studio dedicated to installations and publishing initiatives.

Amina Ahmed (b. 1964, Uganda) is a multidisciplinary artist working in painting, printmaking, bookmaking, and textiles. Of Kutchi-Indian, Turkic (Bukhara), and Nubian heritage, her practice is rooted in spirituality, referencing folk art and “geometry in nature.” The preparation of pigments, inks, and dyes are intentional acts of remembrance; collaboration and coalition building are integral to this preservation.

Essye Klempner is Director of Programs and Partnerships at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (RBPMW). For nearly a decade, she has overseen the Workshop’s residency and educational programs, cultivated partnerships with colleges, museums, and cultural institutions, and led the activation of RBPMW’s archives of more than 10,000 prints through exhibitions, public programs, and research initiatives. 

Jazmine Catasús is the Artistic Director and one of the Master Printers at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (RBPMW), where she has been actively involved since 2013. Her work bridges artistic production, archival stewardship, and community engagement within the printshop and its collections. Catasús has collaborated on printmaking projects with artists including Lizanina Cruz, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, and Dindga McCannon, and brings a practitioner’s perspective to interpreting the Workshop’s history and legacy.