The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

The
Gallery in Zamalek is a new art gallery that recently opened up in the same
apartment as antique store Le Souk just up the stairs from café L’Aroma. The current exhibition at the Gallery is titled ‘Collage: 100 years on’.
The exhibition is inspired by the fact that in 2012 it will be exactly one
hundred years since Braque and Picasso introduced collage as an art form into
the realms of fine art.

The
exhibition showcases the work of several different artists with complete
contradistinctive styles, and so the collection is very diverse. The
exhibition starts with the work of Hisham El Zeiny. Most of his pieces have
soft terracotta colours and depict everyday items such as Turkish coffee
kettles, stars (looking suspiciously similar to the Stella beer logo), carts
and amphora’s alternating with calligraphy.

The work of artist Huda Lufti is
displayed throughout the entire venue and is very interesting. Her work seems
to be inspired by the likes of Andy Warhol and Richard Hamilton. Her most
interesting piece is that of a mannequin head covered in news paper style
headlines saying: ‘No one is a winner in battles between men and women’. We
couldn’t agree more of course. For the
male football fans out there who are convinced that art is boring, you might reconsider after seeing Lufti’s take on a normal football. She collected
pictures from some of the world’s most famous football players and attached
them to two footballs. Of course we don’t advise anyone to actually play with
them.

Another
very interesting artist is Hany Rashed. In his series of collages he has put
the focus on well known prototypical situations of contemporary society which
he has twisted around by adding his own elements. Rashed used pictures from
newspapers and magazines covering a wide range of topics, such as political and
religious events, for his work. All the faces in Rasheds work are whitened
which gives an interesting aspect to the work. Despite the faces being whitened
it’s still fairly easy to recognize Queen Elizabeth, Prince Felipe and Princess
Letitzia of Spain and the Kennedy family. Apart from the royals there is also
an interesting piece about Iran and some pieces depicting everyday life such as
a women shopping in the supermarket and a couple sitting on a square. The city
of Venice and the French language are also recurring themes.

Hassan
Ali’s works differ a lot from each other in the sense that they are either very
bright and colourful or just plain black and white. His work usually depicts
pictures of people and drawings. Mutaz Mohamed El Eman follows a similar
pattern, although his signature style is assimilating pictures of people into
animal shapes.

The
exhibition is absolutely worth a visit because the art is refreshing and some
of the works have a great element of fun.