Hafez Gallery is proud to present Egyptian artist Ibrahim El Dessouki's first solo exhibition
in Saudi Arabia. ”Synchronizing light and shadow”
Opening on 3rd december and ongoing until 14th January 2015. The exhibition will be
showing a range of works from across the artistʼs most seminal series.
A trailblazer in the world of Egyptian contemporary painting, El Dessouki is renowned for
his personal and unique style using the time-honored medium of oil painting, a style that
together with his distinctive choice of subject, consummately encapsulates the spirit of
modern day Egypt, but also, draws from the echoes of its rich cultural past. El Dessouki
successfully treads that precarious thin line, neither completely conforming to tradition, nor
completely rebelling against it.
By far El Dessouki's favorite and most prolific subject is the female figure. His paintings
summon the archetypal Egyptian woman, with a well-rounded figure and Pharonic
features. With their gossamer-like robes that neither reveal nor conceal, they resemble
deities in their statue form, for their eyes remain impenetrably blank, staring sphinx-like
into the unseen, alluding to the mysteries beyond.
El Dessouki delves even further into the sacred visual landscape of ancient Egypt with his
paintings of the columns and temples of the ancient city of Luxor. However, far from being
ordinary architectural representations, El Dessouki's columns hum with a mystical energy.
The columns cast shadows that place the site firmly across the threshold of two worlds,
one set in darkness the other in light. The structures appear monumental and awe-
inspiring, making the viewer feel tiny in comparison, although the paintings are in reality no
larger than human-size.
Also featuring strongly in El Dessouki's practice is the environment, which can be divided
into two domains, the outdoor and the indoor. His indoor compositions are made of a
carefully selected arrangement of everyday objects. The outdoor pictures are arresting
landscape paintings and drawings that are all at once peaceful, yet untamed. The two
environments work together to reveal both the visual and the social landscape of Egypt
today, via the artistʼs unique perspective.
The title of the exhibition Synchronizing light and shade brings into play El Dessouki's use
of shadowing to create the perfect harmony between light and darkness, they do not battle
in his paintings, they revolve, engage and play. His paintings evoke an eerie and
mysterious quality, which rather than disturb the viewer, somehow appear tranquil and
serene. El Dessouki's work nurtures the state of dream before wakefulness, the
imagination before the rational, the soul before the body.
written by Aya Alireza & Raneem Farsi
Biography
Born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1969, El Dessouki descends from a family of artists. Both his
father, El dessouki Fahmi, and mother Atyat Sayed were well-known and established
Egyptian expressionist painters and free-thinking intellectuals, both of whom greatly
influenced the artist that El Dessouki would become.
El Dessouki's painting style is defined by his unique treatment of paint, which concentrates
on his ability to create subtle changes in its texture; his unusual use of negative space;
and his deft manipulation of shadow and light. While the artist's painting genres
encompass portraiture, landscape and still life, his subject matter is very much Egypt-
centric. El Dessouki's paintings capture his own unique and hypnotic perspective of the
soul and essence of Egypt.
El Dessouki obtained a BA in Fine Arts from Helwan University in Cairo 1992, a MA on the
subject of “The London School and British Painting since 1945” in 1997 and a PhD on
“Dynamics in painting“ in 2003. He has exhibited widely in both the Middle East and
Europe, including an exhibition at Bousheri Gallery in Kuwait (2012), the ʻOm Kulsoum'
exhibition at Paris's Institut du Monde Arabe (2008) and at Casa Arabi in Madrid (2014).
His work is included in the collections of the Egyptian Museum of Modern Art and the Arab
Museum of Contemporary Art in Qatar.
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