At the entrance to the Falak Gallery hangs a painting created by Shayma Kamel, an Egyptian artist of Nubian origin, and the manager of the Falak space that she founded in 2014 in the Garden City district.

In the gallery, she exhibits seven works, including her self-portrait, those presenting her cat, and her family.

"I like to defy social conventions, especially those concerning women. I worked on those paintings in Beirut, hence their title Expatriation," says Shayma Kamel.

Her brushstrokes, dominated by red, reflect her rather firm personality, defying the expectations of conservative Arab societies. "In this series, the colour red signals contradiction. It is a divine fire and hell fire. It represents passion of love versus destruction, wisdom versus conflict. It is life, but also blood, death and taboos,” she adds.

The artist juxtaposes the abstract, reality and fantasy; she explores what exists and what does not. The phantasmagorical characters of her canvases raise multiple questions. “It is true that we live in a society that stifles our dreams. Nevertheless, we must always seek to make them come true, by remaining active,” she comments.

 

 

Portraits and Cairo cafés
 

The exhibition also features five paintings by Mervat Shazli, an artist bearing a traditional stamp of her Nubian roots. Her paintings present her native land joyfully in garish colours; they are filled with women in black dresses or multiple dramatic settings, such as women who know how to party wearing gowns decorated with popular motifs. 

Cairo native Omar El Fayoumi accentuates this local and very authentic aspect. His large-format canvas, dating from 2012, depicts a mother, with her hair in the air and meditative bulging eyes. She is depicted expressing simplicity and family warmth; different to El-Fayooumi's typical characters who have this deep, disturbing gazes, fixed on an unknown horizon. 

Mamdouh Quseify’s engravings have a caricatured aspect, showing scenes from popular cafés: their chairs, tables and people who frequent them. A man and a woman smoke hookah.

“It’s their pastime in the summer, sitting in a popular café in Cairo. This is a subject that never ceases to inspire artists, it allows them to reflect an aspect of the Egyptian personality,” comments Shayma Kamel.

 

Women, cities and nature
 

The canvas by Egyptian-Armenian Vahan Telepian is probably the saddest work in the exhibition.

Three juxtaposed faces are joined to present an overwhelmed woman. The face on the left embodies her past; the one in the centre, all thin and pale, says a lot about the present; the very last one, dull and worried, looks into the future. There is no moment of respite, Telepian seems to say, emphasizing the socio-political unrest that his native country, Egypt, has experienced.

Other artists contribute to the exhibition in different ways.

Through very colourful abstract paintings, Mohamed El-Masry emphasizes parental love and family reunions.

The southern women with soft beige faces painted by Ghada Embarek float freely on her canvas.

In her turn, Reem Shakweer, uses soft palettes, in shades of beige and blue, to depict life in the city of Luxor, mosques, churches, domes, minarets, and village houses.

Salah El-Meligy and Esraa Kazem, a master and his disciple, both exhibit landscapes. El-Meligy’s two paintings, entitled On the Nile, reveal the splendour of virgin nature, showing how the artist finds salvation in the wilderness. Kazem draws geese, using a white paint paste, bringing us closer to the birds that held important roles in religious celebrations of Ancient Egypt.

Finally, the works of photographers Hamdi Reda and Bassam Al-Zoghby choose to present old negative monochrome photographic techniques. Reda's photography focuses on wooden doors rich in ornamentation, while Al-Zoghby, on enigmatic naked women.

The exhibition continues until 7 September at Falak Gallery and Cafe. 7 Gamal El-Din Abou El-Mahasen St. Garden City, ground floor, Cairo

This story was originally published in Al-Ahram Hebdo (French). Additional edit: Ahram Online.

Translation from French: Ati Metwaly