In a world controlled by boring daily routines, running away sounds like a big win, even instantly and visually. In Journals of Absence (14-24 May), held at the Mahmoud Mokhtar Cultural Centre, 47 drawings and silk screen prints – as romantic as they are funny, and often adorned with poetic texts recalling the work of vernacular poet Salah Jahin – spirit the viewer away.
A 1991, graphic design graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Zamalek, the artist benefited from his studies, experimenting with different media and techniques. “Graphics is a fascinating genre, linked to the world of journalism and caricature and most importantly with people,” Alkassifi told me. In 2009, what is more, he received a scholarship to study silk screen printing in Guanlan, China, which was followed by two other scholarships in 2010 and 2019. “The Chinese school of printing is the oldest. It helped me to acquire a lot of skills. I learned to draw instantly on silk film so it comes out looking authentic, unlike other printing techniques.”
Alkassifi’s debut, Surrealist Dreams, shown in 2003, included drawings inspired by the work of his mentor and professor, the established graphic artist Salah Elmeligy. Though wholly distinct, Alkassifi’s work reflects the same professional standard and unlimited imagery. The artist’s second collection appeared in 2012, and it generated an art book entitled Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace, inspired by the 25 January Revolution of 2011. His latest collection, Another Saying, was exhibited in 2017 at the Cordoba Gallery. The artist mentioned pioneering artists Salah Jahin, Bikar and Abdel-Hadi Al-Gazzar, all known for writing poetry, as his greatest influences.
“Basically, reading or writing poetry is my main incentive to start a new drawing,” he said, smiling. Here as elsewhere, he seeks a visual language that combines drawing and poetry, and realises poetry in a visual way as well. The title of the present exhibition suggests the artist’s rejection of today’s world. It also genuinely refers to a frame that isolates his own private life and ideas from the outside world. “Actually,” he told me, “the title is inspired by my own absence, even in the art scene. It refers to a collective state of absentmindedness, even, for example, when a group of friends or family members gather together.” Generally, the artist’s surrealist and symbolic work is full of symbols like fish, birds and eyes. Most of his drawings bespeak his sympathy for the fragile middle class in its daily struggle to obtain basic life needs.
The lack of romance and the suffering of lovers under such materialistic conditions is highlighted in a number of sarcastic drawings. A 30 x 30 cm drawing in Chinese ink on paper depicts two lovers sleeping in an empty plate, with a fork balanced on one edge and a knife on the table. Another 50 x 50 cm silk screen print depicts two lovers sleeping back-to-back inside a tiny, half-closed matchbox, with two matchsticks outside. A surrealist drawing depicts two lovers acting as the hands of a wall clock, keeping their distance from each other but united twice a day – another take on absence. Another drawing depicts two lovers taking a selfie. While they both appear in the picture, both their real heads have disappeared. “I’ve experienced this annoying absence for years, but it has been nagging me more recently,” he noted. Occasionally, the artist uses acrylics instead of the usual inks in his prints so that they look more vibrant.
Born in the historic suburb of Heliopolis, the artist has developed a strong passion for pop art and historical Cairo since he was a student, when he spent most of his time drawing at cafes in Al-Hussein and Al-Gamaliya. His work is full of figures and symbols that reflect the spirit of those popular spaces. From monochromatic to vibrant coloured drawings, the spirit of a caricature and sketches exists powerfully. As he depicts the tiny paradoxes in our daily life, the artist’s sarcasm is both sharp and unique in a way that makes viewers instantly sympathise with the situation. The collection on show ranges from deep symbolism to mere illustration. The work also represents a wide span of time as they were produced between 2017 and early this year. “I don’t mind drawing mere illustrations as I find meaning in the simplest images,” he said, referring to a drawing depicting an ancient door, which might refer to a new stage in his own life and career.
The artist belongs to a group of artists whose work is characterised by a witty, naive and whimsical figurative style such as Waleed Taher, Abdel-Aziz Al-Gendy and others. One funny drawing depicts a tuktuk with two lovers kissing inside, isolating themselves from a busy background, which brings to mind work by mid-career cartoonists like Mohamed Tawfeek and Makhlouf. Kassifi doesn’t believe that the age of humour and sarcasm ended with the departure of pioneering cartoonists Salah Jahin and Mostafa Hussein. “We have several good cartoonists; however, the problem is that the span of publishing is so broad that it has become very difficult to focus on significant artists.”
Alkassifi has published several art books, including In the Still of the Night in 2015, and To Keep a Lover in 2016; he believes that art books are more intimate than paintings as the audience can easily interact with them. “Silk screen printing is not just a mechanical way to produce multiple copies of the same drawing. On the contrary, it allows for more experimentation. The addition of dyes and colors in certain amounts generates astonishment when I see the copy coming out of the machine, carrying unexpected features.”
* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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