Egyptian faces at Cairo art exhibition
“Faces”, a group exhibition gathering 76 artists at the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum’s Horizon One Gallery in Giza, takes as its theme the human face, each artist giving his or her point of view in depicting Egyptian faces.
Featuring some of the most important names in modern and contemporary Egyptian art, the exhibition brings together work by artists such as Gamil Shafiq, Samir Fouad, Mustafa El-Razzaz, Mohamed Abla, Adel El-Sewi, Farghali Abdel-Hafez and sculptors Abdel-Hadi El-Weshahi and Adam Henein. Among the younger artists represented are Haitham Nawwar, Fatema Abdel-Rahman, Hend Adnan and Nadine Hammam and sculptors Essam Darwish, Hassan Kamel and Hani Faisal.
Ancient Egyptian portraitists were admired for their craftsmanship and technique, one famous example being the portrait bust of Queen Nefertiti.
An important chapter in the history of portraiture in Egypt unfolded after the discovery of the Fayoum portraits, which were painted during the first to third century AD in Egypt. With their direct, full gaze and strong presence, these portraits bring the inhabitants of Graeco-Roman Egypt before us with compelling intimacy.
Excerpted from an article by Reham El-Adawi for Al-Ahram
