Two significant exhibitions, held simultaneously by coincidence in two galleries right opposite each other – City Nights at Gallery Misr by the celebrated artist Mohamed Abla, and Deep in the Roots by the established Sudanese visual artist Mutaz El Imam at Ubuntu Art Gallery – depict, respectively, the Cairo cityscape, and the savannas of Sudan.
Abla’s oils emanate a cheerful spirit with intimate scenes of the city, its squares, bridges, bustling streets and glowing lights. A kind of visual document of “the city that never sleeps”, the paintings on display are one half of a collection of over 60 pieces, the other part showing at Eram Gallery in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Cairo exhibition runs through 12 January.
Cityscapes are among Abla’s best loved subjects. The artist has frequently painted Cairo, with an exhibition showing street life in 2000 at the Gezira Art Centre and another showing his well-known Cairo Towers at the Zamalek Art Gallery ten years later. Born in Belqas, near the Nile Delta city of Mansoura in 1953, on graduating in 1973 Abla wandered around Europe, studying in Vienna and Zurich and eventually giving his first solo exhibition at the Hohman Gallery in Hamburg in 1979, later exhibiting in the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy.
The internationally acclaimed artist beautifully reveals the spirit of the city at night: the lights of small boats queuing up for passengers on the Nile shore, the lampposts illuminating bridges, bright cafes, trees draped in string lights, wedding processions. He also depicts speed in the motion of motorbikes and cars conveying the very pulse of the city with incredibly articulate brushstrokes.
Thick layers of colour convey a lively ambiance. Human figures are depicted in a sketchy way, concealing facial features in favour of a detailed picture of the city. This technique contributes to the intimacy of the paintings. It is as if seeing yourself in a mirror. With one painting of an Alexandria scene, the titles often indicate the location: Sayeda Zeinab, Andalus Gardens, Odeon Cafe. There is also Love on the Bridge and The Lovers Garden, both showing couples in public but also focusing on the surroundings.
The paintings, which also include a dramtic view of stray dog, were all made in 2022.
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On the other side of Ibn Zinky street, until 10 January Mutaz El-Imam showed over 40 works in acrylic on canvas and ink on paper showing the savanna of western Sudan, a uniquely striking landscape that extends beyond the borders of the country.
Born in Kasala, in the Sudan, El-Imam – who has described himself as a psychological painter – has lived and worked in Egypt since 2008.
The artist uses a mostly warm palette, emphasising green, brown, orange and purple, with the yellowish brown of the natural grass reproduced exactly. The paintings, however, are more or less abstract, with only very occasional and tentative human figures. Despite the warmth they induce, the immediate feeling these paintings evoke is the question of what the viewer might be doing in this landscape.
One answer that eventually impressed itself on me was identity. It is a kind of encounter with oneself. In one 100 cm x 100 cm piece, the torso of a male figure emerges from the green, with the rest of the body dissolving into nature. In another, larger piece, though transported to very unfamiliar surroundings, a banana tree forges an instant connection with the Egyptian countryside.
One key painting shows a purple male figure at a round white table, playing with roots or strings like someone solving a puzzle. He is the colour of melancholy and strangeness, and his humanity contrasts with the surrounding green. It seems to be a negative reflection on the same question: what does it mean to be human, from somewhere, in this day and age?
Perhaps the largest piece, measuring 200 cm x 570 cm, is an abstract panorama of colour in which the viewer has the sense of walking through the grassland at various points of the day. Bold brushstrokes give a sense of the present moment while, in the foreground, to one side, a man and woman with African features look like they have just arrived after a tiring journey. Their faces do not tell whether they are content, astonished or sad. However, they stare in amazement and so does the viewer.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 12 January, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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