Ammar Khammash

 Born in 1960 in Amman, Jordan, lives and works across Jordan and the wider region.

 

Ammar Khammash bridges his architectural practice with his artistic practice  revealing a deep reverence for land as both archive and organism. Through painting, drawing, and photography, he translates the geology, biology, and atmosphere of place into abstract meditations on time and endurance. His expressionistic works emerge from long engagement with terrain, where observation becomes an act of devotion and documentation a tool for understanding. Each work carries the imprint of landscapes, transforming pigment and surface into extensions of stone, sediment, and sky.

 

Furthermore, his contributions in the areas of the environment and community development can be seen in several projects across Jordan. His interest in photography, coupled with an interest in Jordan's architecture, anthropology, archaeology, and nature have resulted in a large archive of images.

 

Khammash studied architecture at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in 1986, and did his graduate work in Ethnoarchaeology at the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at Yarmouk University in 1988. Since then, he has held more than 20 solo exhibitions between 1978 and 2022, and participating in more than 22 group exhibitions. Recent exhibitions include: Light, Wind, Stone, Wadi Finan Gallery, Amman (2024); Nature of Place, Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman (2023); Between Earth and Sky, Orient Gallery, Amman (2022); Mapping of the Land, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2021); and Contemporary Jordanian Landscapes, Darat al Funun, (2019).

 

Solo Shows

2026: Geological Encounters, Wadi Finan Art Gallery, Amman, Jordan. 

2024: Abu Dhabi Art Fair, UAE, Wadi Finan Gallery Booth

2023:  Dubai Art, UAE, Wadi Finan Gallery Booth

2022: Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Wadi Finan Gallery Booth

2017: Desert Soundscapes, Darat Al Funun, Amman, Jordan

2009:  Landscape and Light, NABAD, Amman, Jordan

 

Group Shows

2025: Mixed Palette, Wadi Finan Art Gallery, Amman, Jordan

2024: Abu Dhabi Art Fair, UAE, Wadi Finan Gallery Booth

2023:  Dubai Art, UAE, Wadi Finan Gallery Booth

2022: Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Wadi Finan Gallery Booth

2019: Wadi Finan Art Gallery, Amman, Jordan

2017: Masonry Bridge, Amman Design Week, Jordan

2010: NABAD, Amman, Jordan

1993: Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan

 

Special Projects

2023: Fifth Edition of Paper Note Currency Issued by the Central Bank of the

Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

2002: Fourth Edition of Paper Note Currency Issued by the Central Bank of the

Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

2016: NAFAS, Flint Piano, Amman, Jordan

 

Awards

2019: First Arab architect to win global sustainability award

2016: AGA Khan Award for Architecture

2019: Global Award for Sustainable Architecture

2010: Guardian-Observer “Ethical Travel Award” for the Wild Jordan Nature

Centre in Amman

Notable Collections

National Museum of Jordan

Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan

 

Press and Publications

2023: Diwan Al-Mimar: Ammar Khammash

2023: Ammar Khammash: Notes on Formation

2009: Ancient Landscape: The Landscape Paintings Of Ammar Khammash. / Ammar

Khammash: Image Publishing, 2009. — Khammash, Ammar

2005: Jordan, A Timeless Land, with Christa Paul and David Saunders (I. B. Tauris)

1986: Notes on Village Architecture in Jordan (University of Southwestern Louisiana)