CHICAGO – Hilton | Asmus Contemporary (716 N. Wells Street) today announced the premiere of “OSAMA ESBER: RITUALS OF PASSING,” a debut solo exhibition of limited edition signed photographic prints by Syrian poet, essayist, short story writer and translator, Osama Esber, beginning August 19. Born in Syria in 1963, Osama Esber is a widely published author of poetry, an essayist and short story writer, as well as a major translator of English writings into Arabic. He currently lives in the United States, where he arrived as a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago in 2012, leaving the war-torn country of Syria to avoid the bombing and violence he and his family witnessed. Esber is also an editor for the Arab Studies Institute’s Tadween Publishing House in Chicago; a host of Status Audio Magazine; and co-editor in the Arab section of Jadaliyya Magazine.

Coming from a famous literary family, his uncle, Adonis, the most renowned and influential poet of the Arab world, was nominated numerous times for the Nobel Prize in literature. Esber’s wife, Maha, was a television journalist in Syria before the war. She was also a translator of Spanish novels and poetry, translating Jorge Luis Borges’ magical realist novels from Spanish to Arabic.

We often think of Syrians as refugees throughout the world, yet Esber and his family have not only survived but flourished in the worlds of their own making. Over the years, Esber has translated novels and poetry into Arabic by Henry Miller, Toni Morrison, Bertrand Russell, Seamus Heaney, Elizabeth Gilbert, Raymond Carver, Michael Ondaatje and Noam Chomsky, to name a few. In fact, he translated The English Patient by Ondaatje before the book became famous and made into the Oscar winning film.

His first public appearance in Chicago was in 2013 at the first sound and light installation at the Field Museum: Dante Alighieri’s DIVINA NATURA, by artist Marco Nereo Rotelli, with poetry curated by Arica Hilton, president of Hilton | Asmus Contemporary.

What Esber and his family have experienced often manifests in his poetry. His poem, In the Land of Revelation was about the ravages of war. Writing about things may help ease the pain, the brutality of war, of loss, but also brings a sobering element to one's life.

“Dante, I put your book aside

And travel in its message to me on the roads of another hell.

A hell in which five rivers flow, I came.

Every river has a story to tell:

The first flows from invisible wounds,

The second flows from sorrows

And slides on the cheeks of earth as tears.

The third emanates from the shouts of the crowds

hitting the walls of indifferent cities.

The fourth comes from desperate prayers

Knocking, in vain, the gates of heavens,

The fifth is a river of dead words

In whose waters poets look at their dissipating faces.

Under collapsing roofs

From their rubble black clouds rise,

Expanding a sky for mourning...”

Since Pearl Harbor, we in America, have not experienced war in our neighborhood. We have not seen dead bodies piling up or heard the sound of missiles overhead. America is where Esber and his family began to heal from the traumas of war. Of loss. Of country. Of culture. Of home.

“I am honored to showcase the profound and healing photography of Osama Esber. I first met Osama when I curated the poetry for Marco Nereo Rotelli’s sound and light installation at the Field Museum in 2013. We lost touch for many years but followed each other on Instagram (should I even admit this in writing!?) and I would "like" his photographs from time to time. And then I realized, many of his images were mesmerizing. There was a simplicity and power that made me think of them for days and weeks after. They weren't 'hype.' They weren't the product of an artist trying to impress anyone. Or do something wild and crazy with shock factor. They were just the meanderings of a man walking along a beach meditating on life.” States Arica Hilton.

Moving to the United States from Syria:

“I moved to the United States in 2012, leaving a country torn by war. I moved first inside the country to avoid bombing and violence and then travelled with my family to Spain. While there, I was invited to the University of Chicago as a scholar in residence.

The image inspired me to search for the poem, which I weave word by word, image by image, metaphor by metaphor to make the magical carpet that flies the reader to unknown spaces. – Osama Esber

“Photography was a savior for me as a poet. It liberated me from the influence of a long literary tradition and the dominating language of powerful Arab poets through escaping from the memory of language to the open possibilities of visual reality. Chasing and following the running away photograph opened my eyes to nature, to details and the daily objects that we usually take for granted and forget when we write. I started to look at what I ignored in my early writing and write about stones, trunks of trees, shells, fallen feathers, and the cast away seaweeds and roaring waves which I first catch by camera and then I explore their endless suggestive layers in the poetic realm connecting them to culture and the daily life within the culture that defines us.”

Esber has published 7 collections of poetry, which include: The Accord of waves (1995); Screens of history (1994); Repeated Sunrise in Exile (2004); Where He Does Not Live (2000); On My Seaside Paths (2020); On the Bank of the River of Things (2021); And My Body Told Me (2022). He is also a short story writer. His published short story collections are: The Autobiography of Diamonds (1996); A Café for Committing Suicide (2000). He is a guest at a numerous international symposiums and events.

RITUALS OF PASSING is Osama Esber’s debut exhibition of his photography.

About Hilton | Asmus Contemporary 

Hilton | Asmus Contemporary is owned and run by multi-media artist, poet and writer Arica Hilton. With more than 30 years of experience in representing artists around the world, Hilton founded Hilton | Asmus Contemporary in 2012. In recent years the gallery has flourished, seeing tremendous growth and recognition for the caliber of art exhibitions Hilton has brought to Chicago.

Located in Chicago's River North Art District and their newest gallery in the burgeoning art district of Bridgeport, the gallery specializes in modern and contemporary paintings, works on paper, sculpture and photography, featuring Chicago-based emerging and established artists, with a special focus on internationally known artists from Northern Europe and the Mediterranean Region such as Turkey, Greece, Italy and the Middle East.

Hilton | Asmus Contemporary has received acclaim for exhibitions of the photographers David Yarrow, Paul Nicklen, Cristina Mittermeier, Peter Sorel, Terry O’Neill, Douglas Kirkland and Hugh Arnold.