Young visual artist Ahmed El-Gaafari’s sixth solo exhibition, currently showing at Etegah hall in the Palace of Arts, was inspired by Russian-American Vladimir Nabokov's story titled 'Signs and Symbols.'

Gaafari’s exhibition was inaugurated in Etegah hall, a new governmental hall for visual art, which will only show exhibitions by young artists.

“My father bought me a short story collection by Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov a few years ago. One specific story in the collection, about a differently-abled child who is admitted by his parents into a treatment center, caught my attention,” El-Gaafari told Ahram Online.

El-Gaafari adds that the child’s family would only visit him on his birthday, and failed to interact with him due to his violent attitude towards them and people in general. The child, El-Gaafari adds, saw human beings as demonic icons, and thus could only interact with plants.

“I decided to enter the mind of this differently-abled child, and construct a metaphor for his vision towards signs and symbols, in an attempt to unearth such visions through visual art, by employing colour and strokes,” El-Gaafari explains.

El-Gaafari prefers to use acrylic paint over oil pastel, and points to his passion for painting on huge expanses of canvas that allow him to move freely.

For his part, Khaled Sorour, head of the Fine Arts sector, called the inauguration of Etegah hall “an important addition [to the visual arts scene], that is being inaugurated with an important exhibition by a talented artist, who is one of the Youth Salon’s sons, and who has an important idea to deliver.”

“This inauguration of a new governmental space is important especially given that we suffer from a shortage of exhibition halls, as a result of the [recent] closure of some for restoration purposes. As such, this new exhibition hall is an addition to the other government-operated spaces that give young artists the opportunity to exhibit their work,” Sorour added.

Sorour also applauded El-Gaafari’s exhibition, saying that it “touches the heart, mainly because it is an exhibition based on a story.”

“Works that are inspired by stories and novels usually come out with remarkable passion, and exhibit much emotion.”

“Both the artist’s feelings and his artistic ability to employ a literary text have come to light in this exhibition. This is clear through the maturity of colour, and vivacity of shapes, which despite being abstract, can still be appreciated by the audience," Sorour asserted.

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