Zamalek's Ubuntu Gallery will hold two different art exhibitions in parallel starting on 11 March: one for Mehri Khalil, and the other for El-Husseiny Aly and Nehad Saeed.

Between them, they reference Egyptian artists in Paris, Egyptian mural art and abstract works on the human condition influenced by Sigmund Freud.

Mehri Khalil’s show, titled Baraka, is her second at Ubuntu, the first being in 2016. According to the gallery, Mehri’s works are characterized by balance, harmony and purity, with a subdued colour scheme.

With a master's degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she now works as an arts administrator while completing a PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

Her doctoral research "explores transcultural influences on art, particularly Egyptian artists in Paris, which complements her own practice and research interests,” according to the exhibition statement.

The second show, titled Fine Lines, brings together works by El-Husseiny Aly and Nehad Saeed, two artists from different generations who make prominent use of lines in their work.

Aly is a professor at the Faculty of Art Education in Helwan University, with an artistic practice that draws heavily on Egyptian mural art. His ink drawings and paintings often feature local landscapes, or human and animal figures reminiscent of Ancient Egyptian and Assyrian wall and temple murals.

Saeed holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, and a master’s in fine arts from Helwan University in Cairo. She has participated in multiple biennials, including the Biblioteca Alexandrina’s International Biennial for Miniature Graphics and the China Triennial for Miniature Graphics, as well as the 2015 heritage revival project organized by the European Union and the Biblioteca Alexandrina titled "North and South".

Both her master's thesis and her art practice focus on the historical influence of psychologist Sigmund Freud on graphic design.

According to Ubuntu's biography of the artist, "Her work reflects the existential considerations and questions on life, death and one’s place in the world proposed in Freud’s work in an abstract style executed in large ink drawings and watercolors."

Programme:
Both exhibitions open on 11 March and will run till 31 March
Ubuntu Art Gallery, 20 Hassan Sabry St. Zamalek, Cairo

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