Omar Bey’s works include painting, collage and mixed-media assemblage of found objects. He has developed an innovative command of materials that enables him to evoke surprise, humour and contemplation in his viewers. Bey’s themes revolve around the paradoxical excess of human existence. Each work explores an absurdity which is echoed in its construction with materials that seem to contradict one another. His work is akin to ‘art brut’ and is characterised by his juxtaposition of solid heavy objects and lightweight materials.

Bey’s latest works reflect a more direct and personal engagement with the tensions of his own experiences in Tunisia, but that are transmutable to wider social and cultural contexts. Bey graduated from L’Institut Supérieur des Beaux-art, Tunis in 1998 and was an artist-in-residence at Cité Internationale des Arts between 2011–12. His work has been presented at exhibitions and art fairs in Paris, London, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.