“I live, I feel, and I communicate with souls caught between two worlds: the world of the living and of spirits, the real and the imaginary, fantasy and materiality, truth and illusion, the past and the present, violence and the enduring desire of all humanity to live in harmony, love, freedom, and peace..." writes Hussein in the note accompanying Just Passing By, the exhibition that inaugurated Alchemist7 in Zamalek last month.
"These souls that surround me and are everywhere leave our reality in search of a new refuge, a better world. For me, those who live are those who fight,” he adds.
The exhibition raises questions about controversial human and psychological conditions. Hussein finds his greatest joy in the need to escape—to live moments of freedom, magical pauses amidst the chaos of everyday life.
In his allegorical art, filled with complex visual narratives, Hussein frequently draws on parables, metaphors, enigmatic figures, dense surfaces, and especially thick, layered textures. This is his interpretation of time—an art saturated with surreal, emotional, irrational, and often bizarre imagery.
Born from childhood memories and dreams, the horror of nightmares, reflections as an artist, and lived exile, Hussein’s work invites the viewer into an intimate dialogue between matter and spirit, the tangible and the unseen, the concrete and the unpredictable.
Thus appear recurring characters—painted and costumed figures, sometimes dressed as sad or joyful clowns, toys, traffic cones, pigeons, mechanized, dehumanized men, distorted faces, selfies, bicycles, fish as symbols of isolation and reproduction, and exaggerated, wide-open eyes as symbols of perception and communication.
In his mixed-media paintings, one might also spot a man and a woman—perhaps his mother, father, or beloved. Everything is reimagined as a vessel of memory, identity, and displacement.
World of fantasy
At first glance, the vibrant colours and fantastical characters in Hussein’s work suggest joy or playfulness. Yet behind their seemingly cheerful appearance lies deep sorrow and melancholy. Viewers can’t help but empathize, feel emotionally moved, and reflect on the human condition.
This emotional depth is not surprising from an artist who fled his homeland, Iraq, during wartime.
Born in Baghdad in 1977, Hussein graduated from the Baghdad Academy of Fine Arts (2000–2004). He currently lives between Boston, Istanbul, and Sydney. His neo-surrealist and expressionist art is deeply rooted in nostalgia and a continuous search for belonging and stability.
Strongly influenced by his Mesopotamian heritage, Hussein’s work—marked by a unique style and aesthetic coherence—evokes both the grandeur and ambiguity of that ancient civilization, while also reflecting on the trauma of war and the complexities of exile.
To fully understand Hussein’s art—rich in symbols, signs, enigmas, parables, tensions, paradoxes, ruptures, and contradictions—one must dare to decode it and let go of the constraints that hold us back.
His strange figures, often haloed, seem to float weightlessly in hazy environments. They suggest the erosion of certainties and open a space of possibility. Through this, Hussein conveys ideas of transience, chaos, incompleteness, and doubt.
Sometimes presented in pairs, sometimes as isolated protagonists, his characters are entwined in vast open spaces. Lovers appear huddled together or grouped in masses. Around them, other elements stir to life. Their bodies, outlined with sharp black lines, struggle to create a cocoon—a home for souls and spirits seeking shelter.
These lines and outlines, Hussein explains, are none other than the “scars of war,” a testament to his visionary gaze on the world around him.
New art hub: Alchemist7
Located in Zamalek, the newly founded Alchemist7 gallery is housed in the historic Al-Yamani building, one of the district’s oldest residential structures, dating back to the 1910s. It sits on Prince Ibrahim Helmy Street, also known as Al-Yamani Street.
Alchemist7 was founded by Essam Guenedy, who has lived in London since the early 1990s. After launching a fashion boutique in Kensington in the 2000s and expanding to Athens (Kolonaki), he organized numerous art and design exhibitions in London before deciding to establish something unique in his native Egypt.
Hence, Alchemist7 was born: a creative hub designed to encourage innovation, experimentation, and collaboration across the arts. The gallery showcases painting, sculpture, installations, fashion design, furniture, and solo and group exhibitions of high quality.
As Sinan Hussein’s exhibition closed on 24 July, Alchemist7 is now preparing for a new mixed-media show. The space offers a bright, modern setting ideal for artistic events, showrooms, luxury presentations, and more.
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This article was originally published in Al-Ahram Hebdo (French) on 23 July 2025. Translation and additional edit: Ahram Online.
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