"For the Love of Alexandria", is the latest exhibition of paintings by veteran artist Rabab Nemr currently on show at Zamalek Art gallery. Regarding her art late thinker and author Abdel Wahab Al-Messeiry wrote in 2008, "Rabab Nemr's world is a world of private myths that do not separate the viewers from human reality; it rather captures the essence of this reality, abstracts, and then crystalizes it, thereby making us recognize the human in the world surrounding us." Her timeless human faces, with their wide eyes, looking at both Earth and eternity, with astonishment and with a touch of fear and perhaps melancholy. In one of her paintings, two lovers are depicted embracing, holding a fish, a symbol that radiates many meanings such as life, freedom and fertility. Birds settle peacefully on the shoulders of the lovers, and the fish feels secure in their hands. In this show, her love for Alexandria, specifically Al-Anfoushi district where she lives is brilliantly reflected on canvas where she painted a group of fishermen sometimes sitting to rest and in other scenes actually fishing. Nemr has a photographic memory which allows her to paint the minute details, she painted the fishermen playing cards at the cafes and selling their fish to an Alexandrian clientelle. She is distinguished among her peers with her very own unique style in painting figures, faces or even cats and dogs. The exhibition is on until 7 May.
