Salama gallery's annual group exhibition features art pieces by art icons such as Seif Wanly, Omar El-Nagdi, Samir Fouad and Adham Wanly. Omar El-Nagdi passed away on 22 March 2019 at the age of 88. Born in Cairo in 1931, he studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan University under Ahmed Sabry before attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, starting in 1959. Travelling between Venice and Rome in 1959-1960, he mixed with avant-garde circles, with Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico becoming one of his most influential mentors. Before the age of 30, El-Nagdi was being referred to in the press as 'the Egyptian Picasso'. He is a multifaceted master of calligraphy, expressionism and abstraction, a symbolist and magician of colour. Through expressive textures and symbolic motifs, his paintings proffer serious communication that is deeply felt. He translates Egyptian life into a timeless symbolism that goes beyond mere decoration to reveal a mixture of humanist and mystic sensibilities. On 16 March 2016, El-Nagdi's extraordinary painting, Sarajevo, sold for $1,145,000 in the Now and Ten auction in Dubai, almost doubling its high estimate. The work led the curated sale celebrating Christie's tenth year in Dubai, and established a world record for the artist at auction. El-Nagdi participated in many exhibitions and biennales in Egypt, Europe and Russia. He received several prizes, and his paintings are among the acquisitions of the Museum of Modern Art in Cairo, the Museum of Modern Art in Venice, the Museum of Modern Art in South Korea, the National Library in Paris, the Congress Library in the USA, the Museum of Pistoia in Italy and the Museum of the White House in the USA. 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The exhibition continues until the end of the season.
