Mashrabia Gallery at 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Marrakech 2020
For our first participation in the Marrakech edition of the 1-54 Art Fair, we presented artworks of the artists Adel El Siwi, Soad Abdelrasoul and Hazem El Mestikawy
1-54 has carefully selected 20 leading galleries from 10 countries (Belgium, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and the United Kingdom) to exhibit at the third edition of the fair in Marrakech. The fair will showcase the work of more than 65 artists, both emerging and established, working in a wide variety of mediums and from a range of geographical locations comprising 20 countries.
1-54 has carefully selected 20 leading galleries from 10 countries (Belgium, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and the United Kingdom) to exhibit at the third edition of the fair in Marrakech. The fair will showcase the work of more than 65 artists, both emerging and established, working in a wide variety of mediums and from a range of geographical locations comprising 20 countries.
Adel El Siwi
One of the most famous and influential contemporary Egyptian artists, Adel El Siwi has played a fundamental role in the North African contemporary art scene, as demonstrated by his recent participation in the Pan-African exhibition Prête-moi ton rêve, Casablanca, Morocco.
Mostly known for his monumental faces, Adel El Siwi captivates us here with a body of work which blends two of his biggest subjects of interest, that of human bodies and that of the animal in rapport to the human being, to invite the viewer to delve into his very original gaze on Egyptian life. In these colourful canvases, the life of everyday Egyptians mingles up with the solemnity of royal figures and, as a continuum of his reflection on the human body, which tends to be imperceptible in the local public conscience and discourse in Egypt, the artist emphasizes the sensuality of the characters’ bodies. By showing animals, men, women and metamorphosing humans, the artist succeeds in seizing the quotidian dimension of people’s lives and gives form to an array of different personalities: amongst owls, dogs and monkeys, some figures emanate allure and charisma, others reveal pensive moods and suggestive looks, others reveal a subtle capacity of seduction. The powerful brush strokes recreate the fast-paced rhythm of Egyptian life, stringing together the quickly-changing spirit of the moment to the monumental stillness of the past and its imposing presence. Adel El Siwi’s figures are thus containers of memory and history, while the symbols -interspersed throughout the paintings- introduce the viewer to the non-visible dimension, yet preserving its mysterious core.
At the same time a fulfillment of different cultures, an icon of African-Oriental regality, and a glimpse of quotidian Egyptian life, Adel El Siwi’s human figures and animals together with the abstract indirect symbols and signs make up a narrative that lies between the mundane and the imaginary.
Mostly known for his monumental faces, Adel El Siwi captivates us here with a body of work which blends two of his biggest subjects of interest, that of human bodies and that of the animal in rapport to the human being, to invite the viewer to delve into his very original gaze on Egyptian life. In these colourful canvases, the life of everyday Egyptians mingles up with the solemnity of royal figures and, as a continuum of his reflection on the human body, which tends to be imperceptible in the local public conscience and discourse in Egypt, the artist emphasizes the sensuality of the characters’ bodies. By showing animals, men, women and metamorphosing humans, the artist succeeds in seizing the quotidian dimension of people’s lives and gives form to an array of different personalities: amongst owls, dogs and monkeys, some figures emanate allure and charisma, others reveal pensive moods and suggestive looks, others reveal a subtle capacity of seduction. The powerful brush strokes recreate the fast-paced rhythm of Egyptian life, stringing together the quickly-changing spirit of the moment to the monumental stillness of the past and its imposing presence. Adel El Siwi’s figures are thus containers of memory and history, while the symbols -interspersed throughout the paintings- introduce the viewer to the non-visible dimension, yet preserving its mysterious core.
At the same time a fulfillment of different cultures, an icon of African-Oriental regality, and a glimpse of quotidian Egyptian life, Adel El Siwi’s human figures and animals together with the abstract indirect symbols and signs make up a narrative that lies between the mundane and the imaginary.
Soad Abdelrasoul
Soad Abdelrasoul employs different mediums such as drawing, painting, graphic design, and collage to delineate densely detailed and interweaving human and geographical maps that help us to trace back our roots in the magnitude of the living world. By depicting metamorphosised figures, she doesn’t seek to visualise human physical beauty, but attempts to reflect on the earth’s secrets and the connections between humans and the elements of existence like earth, metals and plants. Tree-like figures, branching veins and arteries, and monstrous insect-like characters merge on ink-colour-mixed media canvases and collage busts to remind viewers of the vital bond between the interior of the human body and the exterior. By using fragments of maps and scientific illustrations of the human body, Soad Abdelrasoul re-conceptualises the way we perceive space and repurposes notions of body, science, and nature into something strikingly personal, which exalts the feminine, the emotional, the overgrowing natural, and the animalesque.
Hazem El Mestikawy
Swiss-Egyptian visual artist born in Egypt in 1965, Hazem El Mestikawy lives between Cairo and Alexandria. His work ingeniously assimilates both ancient Egyptian and Islamic art and architecture, as well as contemporary minimal art philosophies, such as the Bauhaus. He has received international recognition in North Africa, Europe and all over the world and in 2011 he was awarded the Jameel Prize recognising artists who explore traditional Islamic influences through contemporary art. Hazem el Mestikawy’s practice moves between the realms of architecture, design, sculpture, and visual deception, and one of its intriguing aspects is the use of cardboard and cartonage paper-based materials to design installations that are environmentally sound and at the same time seem solid and impenetrable. In fact, the artist plays with fragile materials, with light and shade, with volume and its surrounding space to design deceptively light forms, thus challenging the boundaries between the ephemerality of the material and the enduring nature of the artistic product. In his last body of work, El Mestikawy puts into play a virtual mental combat between South-Oriental and North-Western forces. Scepters and forms from ancient to modern monarchies, symbolic emblems, crowns, and similarly inspired forms hanging on the wall raise questions regarding zones of power and influence. The designed codes of power embedded within the pieces symbolize the rise and fall of ideologies, empires, economies, wealth and power, where millions seem to follow, yet demonstrate the same helplessness.
Mashrabia Gallery at 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair,
London 2019
For our third participation we presented artworks of the artists Adel El Siwi, Qarm Qart, Mustafa El Husseiny and Heba Abu El Ella.
Adel El Siwi
One of the most famous and influential contemporary Egyptian artists, Adel El Siwi has been exploring the subject of faces, which have become his trademark, since the 1990s. As a continuum of his reflection on the human body, which tends to be imperceptible in the local public conscience and discourse in Egypt, he brings back to the limelight the most expressive part of the body against the backdrop of inhibited and guilt-ridden precepts.
ُEl Siwi’s elongated faces, which seem to be growing out from the surfaces, are the amalgamation of a three-pronged influence: the Pharaonic face, the African mask, and the Fayum mummy portraits. This gives form to an array of different personalities: amongst pensive moods and suggestive looks, some faces emanate allure and charisma, others intimidate, others reveal a subtle capacity of seduction. El Siwi’s ancient faces can be distinguished by his monochromatic expressions and the use of warm colours obtained through elegantally and gracefully wrought brushstrokes of oils and acrylics, which intensify the expression of anonymous figures without resorting to too many details. His ready-to-explode static figures are containers of memory and history, while the symbols -interspersed throughout the paintings- introduce the viewer to the non-visible dimension, yet preserving its mysterious core.
Both a fulfillment of different cultures and an icon of African-Oriental regality, Adel El Siwi’s zoomed-in totemic visages, bearing mysterious expressions, together with the abstract indirect symbols and signs make up a narrative that lies between the physical/sensual reality and abstraction, and navigates the depths of the human psyche and subconscious.
Adel El Siwi was born in 1952 in Beheira, Egypt. He studied medicine at Cairo University between 1970 and 1976 and in the same years he studied art at the Faculty of Fine Arts. In 1980 he moved to Milan, Italy, where he lived and worked for a decade before moving back to Cairo, where he currently lives and works. The prominent artist, doctor, and translator Adel El Siwi has taken part in several solo and group exhibitions In Egypt and abroad. Starting from 2000, his work was exhibited many times in Mashrabia gallery of Contemporary art, Cairo, Egypt (2017, 2006, 95, 93, 92, 90) and at Artspace, Dubai, UAE (2015, 2012, 2009, 2007) and in several galleries in Egypt, Germany, Lebanon, Italy, France, Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria, Kuwait, UAE, USA, Algeria, China, and the UK. He has represented Egypt at the Sharjah Biennale, UAE (1997) and the Venice Biennale, Italy (2009). Several private collections and museums hold his acquisitions, such as: British Museum, London, UK; The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; IMA, Paris, France, and Mathaf, Doha, Qatar.
ُEl Siwi’s elongated faces, which seem to be growing out from the surfaces, are the amalgamation of a three-pronged influence: the Pharaonic face, the African mask, and the Fayum mummy portraits. This gives form to an array of different personalities: amongst pensive moods and suggestive looks, some faces emanate allure and charisma, others intimidate, others reveal a subtle capacity of seduction. El Siwi’s ancient faces can be distinguished by his monochromatic expressions and the use of warm colours obtained through elegantally and gracefully wrought brushstrokes of oils and acrylics, which intensify the expression of anonymous figures without resorting to too many details. His ready-to-explode static figures are containers of memory and history, while the symbols -interspersed throughout the paintings- introduce the viewer to the non-visible dimension, yet preserving its mysterious core.
Both a fulfillment of different cultures and an icon of African-Oriental regality, Adel El Siwi’s zoomed-in totemic visages, bearing mysterious expressions, together with the abstract indirect symbols and signs make up a narrative that lies between the physical/sensual reality and abstraction, and navigates the depths of the human psyche and subconscious.
Adel El Siwi was born in 1952 in Beheira, Egypt. He studied medicine at Cairo University between 1970 and 1976 and in the same years he studied art at the Faculty of Fine Arts. In 1980 he moved to Milan, Italy, where he lived and worked for a decade before moving back to Cairo, where he currently lives and works. The prominent artist, doctor, and translator Adel El Siwi has taken part in several solo and group exhibitions In Egypt and abroad. Starting from 2000, his work was exhibited many times in Mashrabia gallery of Contemporary art, Cairo, Egypt (2017, 2006, 95, 93, 92, 90) and at Artspace, Dubai, UAE (2015, 2012, 2009, 2007) and in several galleries in Egypt, Germany, Lebanon, Italy, France, Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria, Kuwait, UAE, USA, Algeria, China, and the UK. He has represented Egypt at the Sharjah Biennale, UAE (1997) and the Venice Biennale, Italy (2009). Several private collections and museums hold his acquisitions, such as: British Museum, London, UK; The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; IMA, Paris, France, and Mathaf, Doha, Qatar.
Qarm Qart
Carmine Cartolano aka Qarm Qart was born in 1972 in Buonabitacolo (Salerno). He studied Arabic and Persian at Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples. Qarm is a Cairo-based versatile artist, translator, writer, and teacher who has been living in Cairo for twenty years now, Qarm Qart (Carmine Cartolano) is proud to consider himself a Cairene. Over the years, his artwork has addressed, by means of unconventional collages, digital pictures, consumer objects, toys, household items and Egyptian popular icons, issues that impact daily on the lives of all Egyptians, as well as inner mental and emotional mazes that people carry within them. In his last body of work, Qarm Qart enacts a profound reading of Naguib Mahfouz. The Cairo trilogy is the starting points for the images Qart stitches onto the tarboush, which serves as the canvas for his imagined world. Qart’s Qarboush - creative works on the tarboush - offers multiple layers of meaning in the interpretation of Egyptian past and presents. The tarboush as male headgear is now an historical relic. But what about its symbolic force of national and patriarchal privilege? The artist makes us ponder whether this privilege has gone with the tarboush itself as he ushers us into disquieting yet intriguing spaces.
Mustafa El Husseiny
Mustafa Ali Saad (AKA El Husseiny) is a Cairo-based visual artist. El-Husseiny graduated from Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University in 2014. His work is magical, symbolic, ironic and macabre. One of the most imaginative emerging artists of the contemporary Egyptian art scene, in his last body of work, El Husseiny boldly employs media such as paper paste, acrylic, and collage to show what he came across during his walks through the cemetery in search of a way to reconnect with his late father. Dozens of small papers hidden in the cracks in the walls surrounding the tombstones, which he initially thought to be supplications or Koranic verses dedicated by visitors to their loved ones, turned out to be containing magical and allegorical symbols. By carving blunt symbols of death, such as skulls and dissections of cadavres, as well as intelligible codes, formulae and numbers into paper paste, El Husseiny emulates the digging up of a past made of mysterious signs and re-conceptualises his personal research into an all-pervasive memento mori. Half-human and half-animal mythological beasts and deities-like creatures impose a fierce and bitter tone to his works, alluding to an uncommon form of sacrality. In a gloomy and restless atmosphere of death, feelings of uncertainty, nostalgia, grief and loss mingle, offering ample space for universal reflection on individual, historical, and collective memory.
Heba Abu El Ella
Heba Abu El Ella is a very promising emerging Egyptian visual artist and light designer. Despite Ella's young age, the artist has held many group exhibitions inside Egypt and proved extraordinary talent and outstanding artistic creativity. The boat is part of an ongoing project, which makes up an installation, with which artist Heba Abu El Ella carries out a very personal research to investigate her roots and the environment in which she has developed. Her work is vitally bonded to the African and Pharaonic history and heritage. The boat recalls the traditions of trade and transportation on the Nile, the hearth of ancient civilization, which has been held up to the ancient people as the source of all life in Egypt. The vessel also reflects the Ancient Egyptians' afterlife beliefs, having been the means for shipping the dead for burial, and thus becoming the symbolic means of transition to a different realm and state of being. By intertwining copper wires and using ammonia and vinegar, Abu El Ella reinvents in a very contemporary flair the techniques of metalworking present in the Fertile Crescent since a very early date. The volume, made of lots of lines with different thicknesses, gives shape to different spaces. The thick lines agglomerate into dark spots, while the thin ones resemble neurons or spider webs. Heba Abu El Ella’s evocative boat represents at the same time a place inside oneself, where lots of forgotten memories, worries, fears and wishes lie, and a place where the thread of history develops and recreates places that can't be found in everyday life anymore. A whole new reality, made of tangible and intangible spaces, intermingling pasts and presents, unfolds.
Heba Abu El Ella was born in 1993, and has since lived and worked in her birthplace Cairo, Egypt. She graduated in 2017 from Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan University, Egypt. She took part in many group exhibitions in Egypt. In addition to sculpture, since 2015, she started to be considered a theater light designer as she attended and practiced light designing workshops at the French Institute and Falaki Theater.
Heba Abu El Ella was born in 1993, and has since lived and worked in her birthplace Cairo, Egypt. She graduated in 2017 from Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan University, Egypt. She took part in many group exhibitions in Egypt. In addition to sculpture, since 2015, she started to be considered a theater light designer as she attended and practiced light designing workshops at the French Institute and Falaki Theater.
Mashrabia Gallery at 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair,
London 2018
This year we showcased works by prominent artists Adel El Siwi, Soad Abdel Rasoul, and Ali Abdel Mohsen.
Adel El Siwi
One of the most famous and influential contemporary Egyptian artists and mostly known for his monumental faces, Adel El Siwi delights us here with a body of work which is the fruit of six years dedicated to an intense reflection on the nature of the animal and its ambivalent relationship with the human being. Adel El Siwi’s impressive and very personal painting technique combined with his ability to continuously update his narrative skills, as well as his unshakable faith in the possibility of giving birth to new worlds by means of painting, give birth to a body of work which is at the same time strongly sensual and conceptually lucid. El Siwi’s colourful large canvases are equipped with a dazzling interior light, as if proclaiming a revelation, each telling a full story of its own. In his long series of studies of the different typologies of animals he attempt to seize the “personality” that lies behind each creature’s appearance. El Siwi sets up a fine network of cultured citations drawn from literature, cinema and art history, whereby he appropriates other artists’ animals, reviving and reinventing them, to achieve a universe where every creature, whether animal or human, participates fully-fledged, not subject to hierarchical classification, but as a protagonist.
Adel El Siwi was born in 1952 in Beheira, Egypt. He studied medicine at Cairo University between 1970 and 1976 and in the same years he studied art at the Faculty of Fine Arts. In 1980 he moved to Milan, Italy, where he lived and worked for a decade before moving back to Cairo, where he currently lives and works. The prominent artist, doctor, and translator Adel El Siwi has taken part in several solo and group exhibitions In Egypt and abroad. Starting from 2000, his work was exhibited many times in Mashrabia gallery of Contemporary art, Cairo, Egypt (2017, 2006, 95, 93, 92, 90) and at Artspace, Dubai, UAE (2015, 2012, 2009, 2007) and in several galleries in Egypt, Germany, Lebanon, Italy, France, Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria, Kuwait, UAE, USA, Algeria, China, and the UK. He has represented Egypt at the Sharjah Biennale, UAE (1997) and the Venice Biennale, Italy (2009). Several private collections and museums hold his acquisitions, such as: British Museum, London, UK; The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; IMA, Paris, France, and Mathaf, Doha, Qatar.
One of the most famous and influential contemporary Egyptian artists and mostly known for his monumental faces, Adel El Siwi delights us here with a body of work which is the fruit of six years dedicated to an intense reflection on the nature of the animal and its ambivalent relationship with the human being. Adel El Siwi’s impressive and very personal painting technique combined with his ability to continuously update his narrative skills, as well as his unshakable faith in the possibility of giving birth to new worlds by means of painting, give birth to a body of work which is at the same time strongly sensual and conceptually lucid. El Siwi’s colourful large canvases are equipped with a dazzling interior light, as if proclaiming a revelation, each telling a full story of its own. In his long series of studies of the different typologies of animals he attempt to seize the “personality” that lies behind each creature’s appearance. El Siwi sets up a fine network of cultured citations drawn from literature, cinema and art history, whereby he appropriates other artists’ animals, reviving and reinventing them, to achieve a universe where every creature, whether animal or human, participates fully-fledged, not subject to hierarchical classification, but as a protagonist.
Adel El Siwi was born in 1952 in Beheira, Egypt. He studied medicine at Cairo University between 1970 and 1976 and in the same years he studied art at the Faculty of Fine Arts. In 1980 he moved to Milan, Italy, where he lived and worked for a decade before moving back to Cairo, where he currently lives and works. The prominent artist, doctor, and translator Adel El Siwi has taken part in several solo and group exhibitions In Egypt and abroad. Starting from 2000, his work was exhibited many times in Mashrabia gallery of Contemporary art, Cairo, Egypt (2017, 2006, 95, 93, 92, 90) and at Artspace, Dubai, UAE (2015, 2012, 2009, 2007) and in several galleries in Egypt, Germany, Lebanon, Italy, France, Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria, Kuwait, UAE, USA, Algeria, China, and the UK. He has represented Egypt at the Sharjah Biennale, UAE (1997) and the Venice Biennale, Italy (2009). Several private collections and museums hold his acquisitions, such as: British Museum, London, UK; The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; IMA, Paris, France, and Mathaf, Doha, Qatar.
Ali Abdel Mohsen
Ali Abdel Mohsen, one of the most stunning visionary artists of the contemporary Egyptian scene, creates, through extremely spontaneous and individualised apocalyptic imagery, an art which is incumbent upon all people. A self-taught artist and journalist, he uses line drawings and acrylic colours mixed with dirt and cigarette ashes on the surfaces of disused cardboard boxes to convey his impressions of decline in contemporary society. Strongly influenced by his surroundings, his work depicts a dystopian world of nihilism and paranoia. Placed in post-apocalyptic scenarios of undefined urban spaces, the scenes portray a society where violence, chaos and corruption have taken over. The individual plays no role: his subjects are faceless victims of the system. In the attempt to explore the grey areas of human nature in a society that is falling apart, the power of visual imagery is brought into play to the greatest extent by utilising consumed materials, which reflect the sense of exhaustion and abandonment of the people. Nonetheless, Abdel Mohsen gives not only an account of contemporary degradation, but portrays a slow war, where alienated figures suggest some latent signs of resilience.
Ali Abdel Mohsen’s artwork, unique in its suggestive titles, such as ‘Slow war’, ‘This a dream come true’, and ‘Razor-sharp teeth’, have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in Egypt, Lebanon, Germany, Denmark, and Dubai. His publications have appeared in important newspapers including Egypt Independent, Mada Masr, Harper's and Al Arabiya. This talented an unprecedented artist was represented by Cairo’s Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary at the Art the Beirut Art Fair, 2016 and in the last years has been rising rapidly in the regional scene.
Ali Abdel Mohsen, one of the most stunning visionary artists of the contemporary Egyptian scene, creates, through extremely spontaneous and individualised apocalyptic imagery, an art which is incumbent upon all people. A self-taught artist and journalist, he uses line drawings and acrylic colours mixed with dirt and cigarette ashes on the surfaces of disused cardboard boxes to convey his impressions of decline in contemporary society. Strongly influenced by his surroundings, his work depicts a dystopian world of nihilism and paranoia. Placed in post-apocalyptic scenarios of undefined urban spaces, the scenes portray a society where violence, chaos and corruption have taken over. The individual plays no role: his subjects are faceless victims of the system. In the attempt to explore the grey areas of human nature in a society that is falling apart, the power of visual imagery is brought into play to the greatest extent by utilising consumed materials, which reflect the sense of exhaustion and abandonment of the people. Nonetheless, Abdel Mohsen gives not only an account of contemporary degradation, but portrays a slow war, where alienated figures suggest some latent signs of resilience.
Ali Abdel Mohsen’s artwork, unique in its suggestive titles, such as ‘Slow war’, ‘This a dream come true’, and ‘Razor-sharp teeth’, have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in Egypt, Lebanon, Germany, Denmark, and Dubai. His publications have appeared in important newspapers including Egypt Independent, Mada Masr, Harper's and Al Arabiya. This talented an unprecedented artist was represented by Cairo’s Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary at the Art the Beirut Art Fair, 2016 and in the last years has been rising rapidly in the regional scene.
Soad Abdel Rasoul
Soad Abdel Rasoul employs different mediums such as drawing, painting, graphic design, and collage to delineate densely detailed and interweaving human and geographical maps that help us to trace back our roots in the magnitude of the living world. By depicting metamorphosised figures, she doesn’t seek to visualise human physical beauty, but attempts to reflect on the earth’s secrets and the connections between humans and the elements of existence like earth, metals and plants. Tree-like figures, branching veins and arteries, and monstrous insect-like characters merge on ink-colour-mixed media canvases and collage busts to remind viewers of the vital bond between the interior of the human body and the exterior. By using fragments of maps and scientific illustrations of the human body, Soad Abdel Rasoul re-conceptualises the way we perceive space and repurposes notions of body, science, and nature into something strikingly personal, which exalts the feminine, the emotional, the overgrowing natural, and the animalesque.
Soad Abdelrasoul lives and works in Cairo. She graduated in 1998 from Fine Arts, completed her masters in History of Art in 2005, and finished her PhD in Modern Art History in 2012. Her works has been on display since 1998. In addition to designing book covers and books for children, Soad conducts art workshops for children inside and outside Egypt. She has taken part in many group and solo exhibitions in Egypt and abroad, such as: Red Hill Gallery, Kenya (2016); Circle Art gallery and Gravetty art gallery, Kenya (2018); Mashrabia Gallery of contemporary art, Cairo, Egypt (2017,2012); Caravan Gallery, USA (2014); Gazambo Gallery, Madrid, Spain (2013).
Soad Abdel Rasoul employs different mediums such as drawing, painting, graphic design, and collage to delineate densely detailed and interweaving human and geographical maps that help us to trace back our roots in the magnitude of the living world. By depicting metamorphosised figures, she doesn’t seek to visualise human physical beauty, but attempts to reflect on the earth’s secrets and the connections between humans and the elements of existence like earth, metals and plants. Tree-like figures, branching veins and arteries, and monstrous insect-like characters merge on ink-colour-mixed media canvases and collage busts to remind viewers of the vital bond between the interior of the human body and the exterior. By using fragments of maps and scientific illustrations of the human body, Soad Abdel Rasoul re-conceptualises the way we perceive space and repurposes notions of body, science, and nature into something strikingly personal, which exalts the feminine, the emotional, the overgrowing natural, and the animalesque.
Soad Abdelrasoul lives and works in Cairo. She graduated in 1998 from Fine Arts, completed her masters in History of Art in 2005, and finished her PhD in Modern Art History in 2012. Her works has been on display since 1998. In addition to designing book covers and books for children, Soad conducts art workshops for children inside and outside Egypt. She has taken part in many group and solo exhibitions in Egypt and abroad, such as: Red Hill Gallery, Kenya (2016); Circle Art gallery and Gravetty art gallery, Kenya (2018); Mashrabia Gallery of contemporary art, Cairo, Egypt (2017,2012); Caravan Gallery, USA (2014); Gazambo Gallery, Madrid, Spain (2013).
Mashrabia Gallery at Beirut Art Fair 2018
We are pleased to announce our participation in this year's Beirut Art Fair, the leading platform for the discovery of new artists, trends, galleries, institutions, and publications from the MENA region, representing a principal catalyst for artistic development of the region.
For our third participation we are presenting the artworks of the following artists: Adel El Siwi, Ahmed Askalany, Hany Rashed, Qarm Qart, with Soad ِAbd El Rasoul, and Youssif Nabil.
For more information about Beirut Art Fair, please visit their website.
For our third participation we are presenting the artworks of the following artists: Adel El Siwi, Ahmed Askalany, Hany Rashed, Qarm Qart, with Soad ِAbd El Rasoul, and Youssif Nabil.
For more information about Beirut Art Fair, please visit their website.
Adel El Siwi:
Adel El Siwi was born in 1952 in Beheira, Egypt. He studied medicine at Cairo University between 1970 and 1976 and in the same years he studied art at the Faculty of Fine Arts. In 1980 he moved to Milan, Italy, where he lived and worked for a decade before moving back to Cairo, where he currently lives and works. The prominent artist, doctor, and translator Adel El Siwi has taken part in several solo and group exhibitions In Egypt and abroad. Starting from 2000, his work was exhibited many times at Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary art, Cairo, Egypt (2017, 2006, 95, 93, 92, 90) and at Artspace, Dubai, UAE (2015, 2012, 2009, 2007), as well as at several galleries in Egypt, Germany, Lebanon, Italy, France, Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria, Kuwait, UAE, USA, Algeria, China, and the UK. He has represented Egypt at the Sharjah Biennale, UAE (1997) and the Venice Biennale, Italy (2009). Several private collections and museums hold his acquisitions, such as: British Museum, London, UK; The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; IMA, Paris, France, and Mathaf, Doha, Qatar.
Adel El Siwi was born in 1952 in Beheira, Egypt. He studied medicine at Cairo University between 1970 and 1976 and in the same years he studied art at the Faculty of Fine Arts. In 1980 he moved to Milan, Italy, where he lived and worked for a decade before moving back to Cairo, where he currently lives and works. The prominent artist, doctor, and translator Adel El Siwi has taken part in several solo and group exhibitions In Egypt and abroad. Starting from 2000, his work was exhibited many times at Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary art, Cairo, Egypt (2017, 2006, 95, 93, 92, 90) and at Artspace, Dubai, UAE (2015, 2012, 2009, 2007), as well as at several galleries in Egypt, Germany, Lebanon, Italy, France, Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria, Kuwait, UAE, USA, Algeria, China, and the UK. He has represented Egypt at the Sharjah Biennale, UAE (1997) and the Venice Biennale, Italy (2009). Several private collections and museums hold his acquisitions, such as: British Museum, London, UK; The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; IMA, Paris, France, and Mathaf, Doha, Qatar.
Ahmed Askalany:
Born in 1978 in Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt, Ahmed Askalany currently lives and works in Cairo. His work shows an explicit connection with traditional materials and craft methods associated with the ancient cultures of Egypt. Throughout his career as a sculptor, Askalany experimented with different materials, valuing also poor and fragile ones, such as terracotta and palm leaves, and recovering discarded and abandoned ones, such as tyres. Characteristic of Askalany’s works are the aesthetic forms that place an emphasis on both structure and volume, as well as an innocent sense of isolation that reflects frankness, candor and a poetic sensitivity. Human figures and animals inspired by his native town make up an impressive mini-show of small sculptures which convey a sense of familiarity and invite the public to interact with them. Askalany's small size hippos, represented with anthropomorphic features, typify virtues and vices of the contemporary reality, and recall at times the primitive and the ancestral, at others the materiality of nature of his homeland. Fat figures with tiny heads –parents, sons, daughters and couples showing loving gestures – are represented in their exaggerated volume with a playful streak of humor and can represent either a form of social criticism or nostalgia for feelings of the past that have now been lost. Ahmed Askalany took part in several exhibitions worldwide such as Egypt, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. His work was displayed at the 4th Rome and Mediterranean Countries Biennale, Sarajevo, Bosnia in 2011 and he represented Egypt at the 2009 Venice Biennale.
Born in 1978 in Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt, Ahmed Askalany currently lives and works in Cairo. His work shows an explicit connection with traditional materials and craft methods associated with the ancient cultures of Egypt. Throughout his career as a sculptor, Askalany experimented with different materials, valuing also poor and fragile ones, such as terracotta and palm leaves, and recovering discarded and abandoned ones, such as tyres. Characteristic of Askalany’s works are the aesthetic forms that place an emphasis on both structure and volume, as well as an innocent sense of isolation that reflects frankness, candor and a poetic sensitivity. Human figures and animals inspired by his native town make up an impressive mini-show of small sculptures which convey a sense of familiarity and invite the public to interact with them. Askalany's small size hippos, represented with anthropomorphic features, typify virtues and vices of the contemporary reality, and recall at times the primitive and the ancestral, at others the materiality of nature of his homeland. Fat figures with tiny heads –parents, sons, daughters and couples showing loving gestures – are represented in their exaggerated volume with a playful streak of humor and can represent either a form of social criticism or nostalgia for feelings of the past that have now been lost. Ahmed Askalany took part in several exhibitions worldwide such as Egypt, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. His work was displayed at the 4th Rome and Mediterranean Countries Biennale, Sarajevo, Bosnia in 2011 and he represented Egypt at the 2009 Venice Biennale.
Hany Rashed:
Born in Cairo in 1975, Hany Rashed lives and works in Cairo. A self-taught artist, Rashed has worked closely with renowned artist Mohamed Abla - who became his mentor. By experimenting with a wide range of techniques, Rashed continuously reinvents himself and his work. His predilection for the use of media images pushes the audience to recognize the banality and the damage caused by excessive exposure to Western media, highlighting the denationalization of the individual. Since the 2011 Revolution, Rashed has played a leading role in documenting part of the contemporary Egyptian history through his sarcastic production.
Born in Cairo in 1975, Hany Rashed lives and works in Cairo. A self-taught artist, Rashed has worked closely with renowned artist Mohamed Abla - who became his mentor. By experimenting with a wide range of techniques, Rashed continuously reinvents himself and his work. His predilection for the use of media images pushes the audience to recognize the banality and the damage caused by excessive exposure to Western media, highlighting the denationalization of the individual. Since the 2011 Revolution, Rashed has played a leading role in documenting part of the contemporary Egyptian history through his sarcastic production.
Qarm Qart:
Carmine Cartolano aka Qarm Qart was born in 1972 in Buonabitacolo (Salerno). He studied Arabic and Persian at Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples. Artist, writer and translator, he has been living in Cairo since 1999. He teaches Italian as a foreign language.
Qarm Qart enacts a profound reading of Naguib Mahfouz. In the stunning modernity of Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy with its sweeping grandeur and evocative detail, Qart sees contemporary Egypt. Palace Walk (Bayn al-Qasrain), Palace of Desire (Qasr al-Shawq), and Sugar Street (Al-Sukkariyya) are starting points for the images Qart stitches onto the tarboush which serves as the canvas for his imagined world. Qart’s Qarboush - creative works on the tarboush - offers multiple layers of meaning in the interpretation of Egyptian past and presents. The tarboush as male headgear is now an historical relic. But what about its symbolic force of national and patriarchal privilege? The artist makes us ponder whether this privilege has gone with the tarboush itself as he ushers us into disquieting yet intriguing spaces. Disruptions and continuities haunt the pinpricks of his Qarboush.
Carmine Cartolano aka Qarm Qart was born in 1972 in Buonabitacolo (Salerno). He studied Arabic and Persian at Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples. Artist, writer and translator, he has been living in Cairo since 1999. He teaches Italian as a foreign language.
Qarm Qart enacts a profound reading of Naguib Mahfouz. In the stunning modernity of Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy with its sweeping grandeur and evocative detail, Qart sees contemporary Egypt. Palace Walk (Bayn al-Qasrain), Palace of Desire (Qasr al-Shawq), and Sugar Street (Al-Sukkariyya) are starting points for the images Qart stitches onto the tarboush which serves as the canvas for his imagined world. Qart’s Qarboush - creative works on the tarboush - offers multiple layers of meaning in the interpretation of Egyptian past and presents. The tarboush as male headgear is now an historical relic. But what about its symbolic force of national and patriarchal privilege? The artist makes us ponder whether this privilege has gone with the tarboush itself as he ushers us into disquieting yet intriguing spaces. Disruptions and continuities haunt the pinpricks of his Qarboush.
Soad Abdel Rasoul:
Soad Abdel Rasoul employs different mediums such as drawing, painting, graphic design, and collage to delineate densely detailed and interweaving human and geographical maps that help us to trace back our roots in the magnitude of the living world. By depicting metamorphosed figures, she doesn’t seek to visualize human physical beauty, but attempts to reflect on the earth’s secrets and the connections between humans and the elements of existence like earth, metals and plants. Tree-like figures, branching veins and arteries, and monstrous insect-like characters merge on ink-colour-mixed media canvases and collage busts to remind viewers of the vital bond between the interior of the human body and the exterior. By using fragments of maps and scientific illustrations of the human body, Soad Abdel Rasoul re-conceptualizes the way we perceive space and repurposes notions of body, science, and nature into something strikingly personal, which exalts the feminine, the emotional, the overgrowing natural, and the animalcule.
Soad Abdelrasoul lives and works in Cairo. She graduated in 1998 from Fine Arts, completed her masters in History of Art in 2005, and finished her PhD in Modern Art History in 2012. Her work has been on display since 1998. In addition to designing book covers and books for children, Soad conducts art workshops for children inside and outside Egypt. She has taken part in many group and solo exhibitions in Egypt and abroad, such as: Red Hill Gallery, Kenya (2016); Circle Art gallery and Gravetty art gallery, Kenya (2018); Mashrabia Gallery of contemporary art, Cairo, Egypt (2017,2012); Caravan Gallery, USA (2014); Gazambo Gallery, Madrid, Spain (2013).
Soad Abdel Rasoul employs different mediums such as drawing, painting, graphic design, and collage to delineate densely detailed and interweaving human and geographical maps that help us to trace back our roots in the magnitude of the living world. By depicting metamorphosed figures, she doesn’t seek to visualize human physical beauty, but attempts to reflect on the earth’s secrets and the connections between humans and the elements of existence like earth, metals and plants. Tree-like figures, branching veins and arteries, and monstrous insect-like characters merge on ink-colour-mixed media canvases and collage busts to remind viewers of the vital bond between the interior of the human body and the exterior. By using fragments of maps and scientific illustrations of the human body, Soad Abdel Rasoul re-conceptualizes the way we perceive space and repurposes notions of body, science, and nature into something strikingly personal, which exalts the feminine, the emotional, the overgrowing natural, and the animalcule.
Soad Abdelrasoul lives and works in Cairo. She graduated in 1998 from Fine Arts, completed her masters in History of Art in 2005, and finished her PhD in Modern Art History in 2012. Her work has been on display since 1998. In addition to designing book covers and books for children, Soad conducts art workshops for children inside and outside Egypt. She has taken part in many group and solo exhibitions in Egypt and abroad, such as: Red Hill Gallery, Kenya (2016); Circle Art gallery and Gravetty art gallery, Kenya (2018); Mashrabia Gallery of contemporary art, Cairo, Egypt (2017,2012); Caravan Gallery, USA (2014); Gazambo Gallery, Madrid, Spain (2013).
Youssef Nabil:
Youssef Nabil is an artist working primarily with photography and video. Originally born in Cairo, Egypt in 1972, he currently lives and works in New York City and Miami. Known for his distinctive technique of hand coloring silver gelatin prints that remove the blemishes of reality and recall the heyday of Egyptian cinema. While working with video and photography, he disrupts the preconceived assumptions about the type of aesthetics associated within those mediums and those identified with his culture. His artwork evokes a sense of longing and nostalgia, allowing his work to flicker between our time and another era.
Three monographs have been published on Nabil’s work: Sleep in My Arms (Autograph ABP and Michael Stevenson, 2007), I Won’t let you die (Hatje Cantz, 2008) and Youssef Nabil (Flammarion, 2013).
Youssef Nabil is an artist working primarily with photography and video. Originally born in Cairo, Egypt in 1972, he currently lives and works in New York City and Miami. Known for his distinctive technique of hand coloring silver gelatin prints that remove the blemishes of reality and recall the heyday of Egyptian cinema. While working with video and photography, he disrupts the preconceived assumptions about the type of aesthetics associated within those mediums and those identified with his culture. His artwork evokes a sense of longing and nostalgia, allowing his work to flicker between our time and another era.
Three monographs have been published on Nabil’s work: Sleep in My Arms (Autograph ABP and Michael Stevenson, 2007), I Won’t let you die (Hatje Cantz, 2008) and Youssef Nabil (Flammarion, 2013).
Mashrabia Gallery at Beirut Art Fair 2017
For our second participation we are presenting the artworks of the artist: Mohamed Monaiseer.
For more information about Beirut Art Fair, please visit their website.
For more information about Beirut Art Fair, please visit their website.
Mohamed Monaiseer:
His works in drawing and painting give body and form to immaterial phenomenon. Once, he was in a cemetery and found, at the foot of a tomb, an old piece of fabric that had been part of a burial shroud. He felt communication with this piece of cloth. It had been around for a long time and he didn’t know what it had been through, who it had belonged to. His fascination with the relic has had a lasting influence on his work.
He uses people’s fascination with old things—the artifact and the icon, for instance—to create an emotional state between viewer and object. The relic helps him overcome the barrier between his audience and his art. Monaiseer’s works are provocative in three ways: in terms of concept, in terms of technique, and as a reminder of history, the passing of time.
Dictionary (2014)
For his personal dictionary he collects things that affects him, objects that draw his attention, and images that carry the spirit of places he visits. He’s constantly adding to this memoir of his personal visual culture, whose symbols translate into an encyclopedia of feelings and emotions. Every time he exhibits these works, they are different. He’s always asking what it is that touches him: Is it the material, the visual, or the spiritual?
He uses people’s fascination with old things—the artifact and the icon, for instance—to create an emotional state between viewer and object. The relic helps him overcome the barrier between his audience and his art. Monaiseer’s works are provocative in three ways: in terms of concept, in terms of technique, and as a reminder of history, the passing of time.
Dictionary (2014)
For his personal dictionary he collects things that affects him, objects that draw his attention, and images that carry the spirit of places he visits. He’s constantly adding to this memoir of his personal visual culture, whose symbols translate into an encyclopedia of feelings and emotions. Every time he exhibits these works, they are different. He’s always asking what it is that touches him: Is it the material, the visual, or the spiritual?
Mashrabia Gallery at 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair,
London 2016
|
Mashrabia Gallery is delighted to announce its first participation in 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London with a solo booth presentation of new artworks by the Sudanese artist Salah El-Mur. Mashrabia's booth is located in the west wing, stand number G1C.
Born in Sudan, Cairo-based artist Salah El-Mur spent years travelling and living across East Africa and the Middle East. Floating between different geographical places and nationalities, El-Mur has a rich and diverse background while maintaining a distinctive and peculiar Sudanese identity to the extent of becoming a flagship of Sudanese art. His paintings portray a variety of heterogeneous tradition, folklore, vernacular of people and environments yet translated in a powerful contemporary visual language. El-Mur deliberately ignores the logics of the relationship between elements. Thus, components are decontextualized and appear recombined together in a spontaneous family gathering. The plain aesthetic combines archaic traditions and visionary language. In this sense, personal memories interact with survivals from the past, creating artworks that unfold as relics of a suspended present as much as documents of a recurrent social phenomenon integrated into social life. Opening on Thursday, 6 October and running until Sunday, 9 October, 2016. |
|
Mashrabia Gallery at Beirut Art Fair 2016
|
Mashrabia Gallery is pleased to announce its first participation in Beirut Art Fair, the leading art fair in the Middle East, with a presentation of artworks by artist Ali Abdel Mohsen, entitled True Stories. Opening on Friday, 16 September and running until Sunday, 18 September, 2016.
Ali Abdel Mohsen uses line drawings and acrylic colours mixed with dirt and cigarette ashes on the surfaces of disused cardboard boxes to convey his impressions of decline in contemporary Egypt. Strongly influenced by his surroundings, his work depicts a dystopic world of nihilism and paranoia. Placed in post-apocalyptic scenarios of undefined urban spaces, the scenes portray a society where violence, chaos and corruption have taken over. The individual plays no role: his subjects are faceless victims of the system. A personal way to undermine the dictatorial reality he lives in, it turns art into a means for everyday social and civil resistance. |
|
ARTEFIERA BOLOGNA
23-26 January 2015
http://www.artefiera.bolognafiere.it/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=817&settore=FE
23-26 January 2015
http://www.artefiera.bolognafiere.it/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=817&settore=FE