Love, by default, is a contradictory concept as it dramatically involves hurting, healing, leaving and staying in the most desperate moments. “In the name of God, I follow the religion of love” is the title of Hakeem Abou Kila’s last exhibition, which closed at Azad Villa in Zamalek on 1 February. The odd title reflects a contradiction between divine, romantic and materialistic love. In a way, the title refers to the artist’s attempt to confirm his own identity and his own perspective on love.
One ground-floor room is dedicated to an installation of transparent pieces of plastic tied to the ceiling by transparent strings and circling a representation of the divine evocative of the Kaaba. Small patches of white paper pasted on the walls reveal the 99 names of God. “The collection discusses the concept of divine love, love for the creator in all religions. However, love between people and couples can’t be ignored. I believe the core of religion has been the same since the creation of Adam,” Abou Kila argued, adding that he believes love for the creator is the most “unconditional” form of love. Another list of commandments, written by the artist himself, which should bring peace and happiness to people in contemporary life amidst endless conflicts and wars. “I know the installation carries a direct message, and it is artistically ok, as it falls into the category of conceptual art. In addition, it reflects a change in my artistic character...”
The rest of the two-floor gallery is dedicated to scenes of primitive and romantic love. The collection is inspired by a philosophical question: What if you wake up to find the world population has shrunk to fewer than a thousand people, you being one of the survivors of a cataclysm that wiped out most of humanity? Knowing of the conflict between Cain and Abel, we can deduce that this wouldn’t necessarily preclude conflict. “The concept probes the possibility that a new beginning for a group of people would urge them to behave in a better way. It is just a hope for people to love each other,” Abou Kila says.
On show, as well as the installation, are 21 oil on canvas paintings, three huge vases and 56 small drawings and collages. Although the number of exhibits is large, the two-floor gallery doesn’t feel busy. The prevailing white backgrounds of the canvases contribute to a feeling of space. As in the artist’s previous exhibitions, the three hand-painted vases take up a significant portion of the show. Here the vases are slightly bigger than usual. One of those vases is titled The Road to Heaven. It depicts two lovers flying over the window in a room full of fish and fruits. While the vase is itself an ancient form of handicraft, the content painted on vases is no different from that depicted on other media. According to the 36-year-old artist: “The 3D vases offered me a way to manipulate the scene. For example, a man and a woman depicted on a vase could be formed into a loop, a different zone where they have the capacity to interact in a more flexible way.” The coexistence of larger-than-life canvases and tiny drawings is alluring.
A series of mixed media on cardboard 10x10 cm pieces includes a circular wooden frame in which a man and a woman, nude, appear outdoors. A 227x188 cm oil painting, 39 Angels, is a compelling interpretation of a scene in which angels revolve around Adam and Eve in the sky, with the Kaaba on the ground and a mermaid suspended between the two. Here as in other paintings, whiteness stands out vividly in the background. Most backgrounds are painted in rich white, evoking a cloudy sky, offering the viewer an opportunity to focus on the form of the figures. Due to that whiteness, many heavily layered figures reflect a kind of lightness, appearing like an angel-human cross. In this context, white may also refer to silence, death or the afterlife.
This is the artist’s seventh solo exhibition. Many of his previous exhibitions are inspired by philosophy and myth: The Grass is Not Greener on the Other Side in 2024 at the Yassin Gallery; What the Eye Cannot See in 2018; and Do We Exist? in 2020. A series of small collages called “The Good Heart Always Wins” – the first collages Abou Kila has exhibited – are markedly simple and striking. They combine drawing with photography. But The Good Heart Always Wins is also the title of one of the biggest oil paintings on show. It depicts two tiny men wrestling ferociously over a tiny woman with two wings, who flies to the top of the painting to meet a huge man offering her a flower. Fish, a recurrent trope in Abou Kila’s work, appear side by side with relatively new symbols of love: angels and mermaids. The latter, Abou Kila tells me, “is an enigmatic, beautiful figure that, just like so many of us, longs for pure love”.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 12 February, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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