About Tony Khawam

Event: Artist as Activist

Dates: 7 Jun 2025 - 2 Aug 2025

The selected artists use their creative practices to challenge societal norms, raise awareness, and inspire audiences to engage critically with the world around them. The works address a broad spectrum of urgent topics—including environmental stewardship, immigration, health and wellbeing, political engagement, and more. Rather than employing overt or reactionary tactics, these artists adopt a more nuanced approach. Their work invites viewers to engage with complex issues on their terms, promoting personal reflection and dialogue rather than prescribing a singular viewpoint.

Event: Living the Dream Painting Series

Dates: 14 Jul 2023 - 11 Sep 2023

The inspiration for this series was my interest in history, human emotion, allusions to place, memory, and the ubiquitous fleeting moments of the conscious and unconscious. This continuous series of paintings have been supported by grants from the Florida Division of Arts & Culture, Miami-Dade and Broward Counties Cultural Divisions, Florida.

The work is steeped in iconic undertones, drawing from my deep fascination with historical imagery and the influences of post-war American art. My canvases are democratic spaces devoid of illusion or perspective, where anything can be depicted. The work is a vivid journey through my artistic life and the world around me as an immigrant and an American.

Event: Figurative Patterns

Dates: 15 Feb 2023 - 19 Feb 2023

A group of artists who explore historical figures utilizing their cultural heritage through their medium, curated by Salon Comparaisons, Grand Palais Éphémére, February 15-19, Paris, France.

Event: Crossing Borders: Artists from the Middle East and the Americas

Dates: 7 Jul 2022 - 5 Oct 2022

Immigrant artists from Turkey, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Russia, France, and the UK share their art and personal stories about their cultural heritage intertwined with their American experience, and the impact of immigration and the new American culture on their lives and art-making. The project entitled “Crossing Borders: Artists from the Middle East & the Americas” is an art exhibition with cultural events from South Florida’s rich multicultural community. At the exhibit opening, attendants will experience “A Taste of the Middle East, and Latin America,” and engage the attendants in a facilitated dialogue focusing on building cultural understanding, dispelling stereotypes, and fostering awareness of immigrants from the Middle East, the Americas and beyond with stories of their history in the U.S. This will be shared through videos, photos, and text as it contributes to the American fabric.

Event: Prosperity Painting Series

Dates: 16 Jun 2022 - 11 Aug 2022

Vividly reflecting my fascination with South Florida’s vibrant lifestyle, the prosperity painting series stands as a grand testimony. This region offers spectacular flora and fauna, miles of golden and white sandy beaches, and a dynamic, grid-like aerial scene. It features a fabulous blue ocean with waves and a canal system reminiscent of Venice. The perpendicular urban view gives me the freedom to work on a painting from all four sides. No matter how the painting is turned, it reveals almost the same visual result. The focus is on waterfront luxury homes, swimming pools, boats, and cars, which form a network of geometric abstract shapes. The composition centers around flat shapes and a joyful color palette to reflect the spirit of Florida’s landscape.

Event: Bird's-Eye Views

Dates: 9 Apr 2022 - 22 Apr 2022

“Bir's Eye Views” solo exhibit at Artexpo New York show, April 19-22, 2028, Pier 94, New York, NY.

Event: American Dream

Dates: 30 Nov 2021 - 5 Dec 2021

The past and present of the "American Dream" painting series demonstrate how art—through color, line, and shape—enriches the viewer’s experience. The work delicately balances representation and abstraction, mirroring real and unreal aspects of lived experience as painted by the artist. Furthermore, the use of varied media—acrylic, colored pastel, and spray paint—references painterly collage in an experimental and risk-taking manner. The works feature both social commentary, fashion motifs, everyday objects, pop culture ads, cartoons, film, and Florida flora and fauna inhabit the flat, kaleidoscopic surfaces. The artist’s dialogue with past traditions is interwoven with his active participation in current global artistic discussions. This simultaneous engagement with past, present, and future highlights a singular creative voice.

Event: Emerging Art from War-Torn Syria: War & Hope

Dates: 5 Oct 2021 - 5 Oct 2021

Throughout the history of human conflict, entire cultures have often been all but obliterated simply through the weaponized destruction of artwork. But in war-torn Syria, beset for years by suffering, death, and chaos, the resilience of its artists perseveres in conveying the nation’s urgent story worldwide.
A full-scale exhibition entitled “Emerging Art From War-Torn Syria: War & Hope” will be at the UN HQ main gallery at the entrance to the General Assembly.

Event: The American Road Trip

Dates: 15 Aug 2021 - 28 Feb 2022

curated by Imtiaz Hafiz of Art in Embassies, US Dept of State, Washington, DC. The exhibit started at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and a tour of in the American Asian Embassies.

Event: Crossing Borders: Artists from the Middle East and Latin America

Dates: 6 Aug 2021 - 30 Sep 2021

Immigrant artists from Turkey, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Russia, France, and the UK share their art and personal stories about their cultural heritage intertwined with their American experience, and the impact of immigration and the new American culture on their lives and art-making. The project entitled “Crossing Borders: Artists from the Middle East & the Americas” is an art exhibition with cultural events from South Florida’s rich multicultural community. At the exhibit opening, attendants will experience “A Taste of the Middle East, and Latin America,” and engage the attendants in a facilitated dialogue focusing on building cultural understanding, dispelling stereotypes, and fostering awareness of immigrants from the Middle East, the Americas and beyond with stories of their history in the U.S. This will be shared through videos, photos, and text as it contributes to the American fabric.

Event: Contemporary Syrian Art: War & Hope

Dates: 20 Sep 2020 - 30 Oct 2020

Throughout the history of human conflict, entire cultures have often been all but obliterated simply through the weaponized destruction of artwork. But in war-torn Syria, beset for years by suffering, death, and chaos, the resilience of its artists perseveres in conveying the nation’s urgent story worldwide.

ArtServe, South Florida’s award-winning arts services organization that is advancing the arts for social good, will help Syrian artists deliver their message in a full-scale exhibition entitled “Emerging Art From War-Torn Syria: War & Hope.”

Event: CHAOS Painting serious

Dates: 1 Sep 2020 - 20 Oct 2020

The Syrian and Ukrainian conflicts inspired me to create a series of paintings that explore human emotions in urban areas disrupted by war. These conflicts have transformed the urban landscape, placing it on the frontlines. In this series, I focus on neighborhoods in ruins in Aleppo, Syria, and Kyiv, Ukraine. These cities were selected as representative examples of their respective countries, highlighting urban scenes with collapsed apartment buildings. The paintings depict haunting and disturbing imagery, intentionally using a palette of vibrant colors and swirling, gestural brushstrokes that seem to emerge from the canvas with a vigorous life force.

Event: Abstracted Landscapes

Dates: 4 Oct 2006 - 10 Nov 2006

Abstracted Landscapes inspired by studies of nature, painted in impasto expressionist style

Event: Accumulative Strokes

Dates: 15 Sep 2003 - 15 Oct 2003

The artist developed short, cumulative strokes to form a 3D, abstracted composition inspired by aerial views of New Jersey's urban landscape.

Event: Urban Landscapes

Dates: 15 Apr 1097 - 15 May 1997

Urban Landscapes inspired by a bird-eye view of the New Jersey industrial and urban scene