work
the work of bilal chahal is influenced by the lessons he got of his teachers luigi pinedo, who taught him everything about oil painting, raed selman who made him start more free painting and acrylic and most of all by ria houwen who made him develop his own signature.
bilal wants to renew and since artistic and technical innovations go hand in hand, this also happened.
since this period, colour became an important character in bilal chahal’s work.
he makes abstract work that ranges from seemingly simple, but on closer inspection complicated accumulated monochromes, to bright colourful canvases in which the paint in various techniques is applied so that a nearly three-dimensional artwork is created, demonstrating that artistic and technical innovation go hand in hand.
the rainbow of colours in reflection of one another, should express the sense of the world from inside his mind, the one in which he likes to disappear.
apart from painting, biblal chahal also brings forth abstract sculptures, and photography.
chahal was not just influenced by his teachers but also by other painters, for example mark rothko and joan miro.
which indeed can be seen in his own work as well.
just like rothko and miro, bilal chahal masters the art of omission.
the subject becomes more free and the sense abstraction, more visible. the development continues.
bilal chahal: ‘I’m not at all restricted anymore by elements as the size of the cloth ot the paint or the material’.
project abacus
in 2019 bilal chahal received a development grant (‘ontwikkelingsbudget’) from the afk, amsterdams fonds voor de kunst of € 15.000,- for his project abacus.
he won a residency at the ceac, chinese european art centre, where he worked with the xiamen art university, fujian, china.
bilal received a grant from stichting stokroos of € 2.500,- for artistic development.
in september 2019 his project abacus got a spin off in chiasso perduto, florence, italy, where he showed part of his installation as well drawings and intervened in the walls of the gallery to elaborate his thoughts about his project abacus.
his project abacus is shown from january 30th until march 1st 2020 in the exhibition space of oba, the public library of amsterdam at oosterdok, in collaboration with the ceac, where he was in residency in 2019.
there he was able to create his installation of originally 45 white balls out of porcelain.
parallel to the exhibition in oba is a sales exhibition of his project abacus in the space of gallery 9 from february 1st until march 14th 2020.
bilal chahal
born in 1978 in tripoli, lebanon, grew up there until his tenth
moved to curaçao (na) in 1990
moved to st. maarten (na) 1998
lives and works in amsterdam (nl) since 1999 and currently a part of the year in amsterdam and a part of the year in bogotà, colombia
education
1991-1992 luigi pinedo, oil colours, curaçao, dutch antilles
1992-1995 raed selman, drawings in acrylic, curaçao, dutch antilles
1993-1995 tineke van der geest, sculpting on wood, curaçao, dutch antilles
1994-1999 ria houwen, drawing technique, curaçao, dutch antilles
1994-1999 pre-university education, curaçao, dutch antilles
1995-1997 yvette brandt, drawing technique, curaçao, dutch antilles
2002 propaedeutic studies in art history, uva, amsterdam, the netherlands.
exhibitions
solo- and group exhibitions among others:
in the netherlands on several loctions in amsterdam and curaçao (dutch antilles) and also in abcoude, eck en wiel, hilversum, rotterdam and oisterwijk
in belgium: antwerp
in china: xiamen fujian
in colombia: bogotà, medellin
in Italy: florence, sicily
in the usa: miami, new york
gallery 9 presents the work of bilal chahal since 2014:
2023 holidays exhibition in the gallery
2023 summer exhibition in the gallery
2023 spring exhibition in the gallery
2023 winter exhibition ‘blue’ in the gallery
2022 summer exhibition in the gallery
2022 spring exhibition in the gallery
2021 presentation at kunstrai | art amsterdam in rai, amsterdam (nl)
2021 summer exhibition in the gallery
2021 spring exhibition in the gallery
2020 summer exhibition in the gallery
2020 solo exhibition ‘project abacus’ in the gallery
2019 winter exhibition in the gallery
2018 summer exhibition in the gallery
2018 winter exhibition in the gallery
2017 summer exhibition in the gallery
2016 spring exhibiition in the gallery
2016 presentation at rotterdam contemporary art fair (rcaf) in rotterdam (nl)
2015 exhibition together with aaldrik harkema and henk van putten in the gallery
2015 summer exhibition in the gallery
2015 a-a-f (after art fairs) exhibition in the gallery
2015 presentation at kunstrai in rai, amsterdam (nl)
2015 presentation at art breda at chasséveld, breda (nl)
2015 late spring exhibition in the gallery
2015 presentation at rotterdam contemporary art fair in cruise terminal, rotterdam (nl)
2015 early spring exhibition in the gallery
2014 summer exhibition in the gallery
2014 presentation at kunstrai in rai, amsterdam (nl)
2014 presentation at art breda at chasséveld, breda (nl)
2014 presentation at raw art fair in cruise terminal, rotterdam (nl)
2014 jubilee exhibition 25 years gallery 9 in the gallery
art fairs
art in red light 2014, in beurs van berlage, amsterdam (nl)
art in red light 2005, 2006 and 2007 in oude kerk, amsterdam (nl)
kunstrai 2014, stand masterpieces, in rai, amsterdam (nl)
kunstrai | art amsterdam 2017 in rai, amsterdam (nl)
gallery 9 presented works of biblal chahal at:
art breda 2015 and 2014 at chasséveld, breda (nl)
kunstrai 2014 and 2015 in rai, amsterdam (nl)
raw art fair 2014 in cruise terminal, rotterdam (nl)
rotterdam contemporary art fair 2015 in cruise terminal, rotterdam (nl)
jubilee presentation 25 years gallery 9 in 2014 at raw art fair, art breda and kunstrai
collections
his work is in several collections including:
collectio of municipio cultural trapani, italy
world trade centre, curacao
private collections
private collections around the world
museums
museo di art eriche, sicily
grants
2019 development grants for artists, afk amsterdamse fods voor de kunst
2019 production grant for artists, stichting stokroos
artist in residencies
2019 chinese european art centre, xiamen, china: 3 months
publications
2004 patrick healy, the works, an essay
2005 norbert splint, verdwijnen in een kunstwerk
2005 g-krant / magazine 26 august
2006 la sicilia 22 april
2006 local newspaper oisterwijk april 2006
2009 patrick healy, essay II
2011 nrc next, maaike vermeulen, 4 november 2011
2011 bilal chahal, a catalogue containing an overwiew of bilal’s work (english/spanish)
2012 nrc next, maaike vermeulen, 24 january 2012
2012 vals plat: a documentary by patrick bisschops, ntr, ned3
2012 full color: a documentary by hassan, at5
2013 van gogh and chahal at work at the van gogh museum, news item by arte tv
2013 patrick healy, rawminism in a thousand words
2013 de telegraaf, het hoofd leeg maken
2014 avro kunstuur: cobra museum - museo guggenheim
2018 tendencias, abril 2018, medellin, colombia