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.
Adel El Siwi
Widely 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 deeply 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 simultaneously studied medicine at Cairo University and art at the Faculty of Fine Arts between 1970 and 1976. 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 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.
Adel El Siwi
Widely 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 deeply 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 simultaneously studied medicine at Cairo University and art at the Faculty of Fine Arts between 1970 and 1976. 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 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.
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 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 the canvas 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 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 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 the canvas 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.
Hazem El Mestikawy
Swiss-Egyptian visual artist Hazem El Mestikawy was born in Egypt in 1965 and currently 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. 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 appear solid and impenetrable. The artist manipulates fragile materials, light and shadow, as well as volume and surrounding space, to design deceptively light forms, challenging the boundaries between the ephemerality of the material and the enduring nature of the artistic product.
In his most recent 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.
Swiss-Egyptian visual artist Hazem El Mestikawy was born in Egypt in 1965 and currently 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. 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 appear solid and impenetrable. The artist manipulates fragile materials, light and shadow, as well as volume and surrounding space, to design deceptively light forms, challenging the boundaries between the ephemerality of the material and the enduring nature of the artistic product.
In his most recent 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.