On display at the Leila Heller Gallery until 5 July 2026, The Echoes of Silent Bells is a profound solo exhibition by Syrian-Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad. It marks a poignant chapter in his ongoing exploration of memory, forced displacement, and the tangible remnants of history. The exhibition presents a new body of work, which ranges from monumental installations to delicate, hand-cut mixed-media compositions, transforming the gallery space into a sanctuary where fractured pasts are thoughtfully reconstructed for the present.
The Echoes of Silent Bells revolves around the concept of cultural endurance against the forces of erasure and time. Mourad’s new collection examines how history, faith, and local folklore survive even when the physical structures that house them have been reduced to ruins or left behind due to conflict. Rather than acting as a static record of historical events, the artworks on view are fluid, emotional landscapes that challenge linear concepts of time.
Central to Mourad’s latest work is his innovative material practice. He employs acrylic and ink on unconventional mediums, such as layered textiles, Egyptian cotton, linen, and recycled denim, to physically sculpt his paintings. By intricately hand-cutting his materials, the artist introduces literal and metaphorical voids into the artwork. The negative spaces and cast shadows become as vital to the narrative as the ink marks themselves, representing the physical absences left by migration and war while highlighting the continuous threads that keep a culture alive.
Several standout art pieces that anchor the exhibition explore this interplay of architecture and human resilience. The Silent Bells (2025), crafted from acrylic and ink on denim, is a pivotal work that uses the heavy, rugged texture of labour-worn fabric to evoke the soundless echo of lost rituals and abandoned sanctuaries. Monumental installations, Memories of the Stones and Tower, depict architectural forms seemingly suspended between collapse and sudden rebirth. Towering arches and staggered stairs resemble ancient Armenian monasteries and the historic structures of Aleppo. Kalila wa Dimnah and The Conference of the Birds draw directly from classical Eastern literary, spiritual, and folkloric traditions to weave multi-layered stories about survival, migration, and the shared human condition.
A particularly fascinating aspect of Mourad’s practice is the nomadic quality of his art. While his hand-cut textiles and immense architectural tapestries loom large and possess an undeniable physical presence, they are designed to be lightweight and portable. A massive, multi-meter composition can be neatly folded down like a piece of clothing. It is a technical nod to the realities of displacement, suggesting that the art, much like the refugee, must be able to pack its entire history into a single bag and move at a moment’s notice.
The visual language of The Echoes of Silent Bells relies on a palette dominated by blacks, greys, and earth tones, which recall the austere beauty of traditional ink brush calligraphy. In art pieces like The Alchemist’s Gate (2026) and When Time Was Like a River, Mourad’s recurring use of staircases replaces classical landscapes with symbols of spiritual ascent and arduous journeys.
By avoiding static representation, Mourad’s lines twist, loop, and stack to form dense textures where human silhouettes and crumbling stone pillars blend. The silent bells he references do not ring out with sound, but rather vibrate visually through the gallery. They urge the viewer to remember what has been lost and to appreciate what has managed to survive.
About the artist
Kevork Mourad (b. 1970, Qamishli, Syria) is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York whose work bridges the gaps between painting, animation, performance, and scenography. He earned an MFA from the Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts (Armenia). His life and artistic vision are intertwined with the complex cultural tapestries of the Middle East and his ancestral Armenia. Growing up amid the rich heritage of Aleppo, Mourad developed an early reverence for the ancient civilisations, oral traditions, and architecture that defined his surroundings.
Mourad is celebrated for his spontaneous, live-drawing performances. He is the only visual artist member of cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s acclaimed Silkroad Ensemble, an involvement that heavily influences the rhythmic, calligraphic nature of his line work. His collaborative projects, which synchronise live painting and digital animation with world-class musicians, choreographers, and opera companies, have been staged globally at prestigious venues. These include the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the National Cathedral (Washington, D.C.), and the Korea National Opera (Seoul). Mourad’s artworks are part of esteemed public collections, such as the Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris), the Aga Khan Museum (Toronto), the Pergamonmuseum (Berlin), and the Spurlock Museum (Illinois).
To get more information about The Echoes of Silent Bells, please visit the exhibition’s official web page.
Additionally, you might be interested in exploring All in the Family at Leila Heller Gallery.
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