When Ibrahim al-Dessouky, a professor of painting at Helwan University's Faculty of Fine Arts, wanted to teach his class a lesson on how to draw flesh, he had to do so with an advisory note.
“I wanted to explain the history of a certain kind of (...)
A wall of text can be daunting to confront in the context of an art exhibition. It asks the viewer for a straightforward but time consuming engagement. One cannot simply wander about “I am Not There,” the exhibition that comprises the visual arts (...)
Ayman Lotfy speaks of himself as a champion of what he calls “Fine Art Photography.” In a recent article published in the Photographic Society of America Journal, Lotfy outlined the basics of "Fine Art Photography," writing, “The goal for the (...)
A handful of minor international celebrities have risen out of the uprising that heaved through the country a year ago, but few have captured the imagination of a media hungry for the perfect revolutionary narrative like Wael Ghonim has. The Google (...)
Nearly a year since Hosni Mubarak's resignation, the phrase “18 Days in Egypt” has become very familiar, with some variation of it serving as the title of maybe a dozen small documentary film projects. But "18 Days in Egypt," despite its common (...)
Everything about George Bahgory recalls a lost time. The renowned Egyptian painter and caricaturist (sometimes referred to as the “Grandaddy of Egyptian Caricature”) has cultivated for himself the classic image of a 19th century Parisian painter; (...)
What does the peaceful and wealthy country of Sweden have in common with downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square, the staging ground of Egypt's revolution? Swedish meatballs, smoked salmon and lingonberry jam, of course.
For months we eagerly awaited the (...)
The sea seemingly remains the only space on earth not divided and controlled down to the last square centimeter. Classically embodying mystery, danger, and opportunity, throughout history, it has been a space where humans battle nature to dominate (...)
A couple of hours before the screening of the documentary “Tahrir 2011: The Good, the Bad, and the Politician” at the 4th Panorama of the European Film on Friday 25 November, one participant in the demonstrations in Tahrir Square, Ayman Farag, (...)
One of Egypt's most celebrated contemporary artists, Wael Shawky, makes work of a grand and complicated scale. His recent half-hour long film “Cabaret Crusade: The Horror File” is the first installment in what he plans will be a four-part video (...)
There is an uncanny consistency to super group charity singles. Whether it is Sting, Michael Jackson, or Tamer Hosny standing at the microphone, you can be sure he will be shaking his head back and forth, eyes closed, clutching his headphones with (...)
The 20th Arab Music Festival and Conference opened Friday evening at the Cairo Opera House with a dramatic pageant of over-the-top nationalism, themed around the 2011 revolutions in the Arab world. The show was a flashy, exhilarating spectacle (...)
The Dead Sea Scrolls were fated to a controversial place in history. After being secreted away in a cave, supposedly by an ancient monastic Jewish community, they lay hidden for nearly 2000 years until being discovered in 1947 — just the right (...)
From Damon Kowarsky's quiet charcoal cityscapes, to Qarm Qart's psychedelic depictions of Cairo street scenes, recent exhibitions at Mashrabia Gallery have highlighted the various ways Cairo inspires visiting or transplanted artists.
Mashrabia's (...)
Not so long ago, the space now colorfully occupied by the new Alexandrian cultural center Al-Cabina was a dump so full of trash it was anyone's guess what exactly was buried behind the mountains of waste. Ayman Asfour, organizer of Al-Cabina's (...)
The Arab Shorts Film Festival began as a one-time event in 2009, but caught on strongly enough that this Thursday will mark the beginning of its third edition. And according to artistic director Marcel Schwierin, “This year the festival is bigger (...)
On the second day of the Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean Countries, the Green Plaza Movie Theater had yet to put up signs indicating the film festival was taking place, and printed schedules were still unavailable. Resources seemed to be (...)
After the cancellation of the Cairo and Ismailia film festivals this year, the Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean Countries has stepped up as one festival that is willing to brave post-25 January Egypt. Staking out its position (...)
Hanging in frames in pristine galleries and museums, or stored carefully in an artist's studio, off limits for touching or even looking too closely, works of art are often wrapped in layers of mystique and preciousness, treated as perfected, (...)
Maybe the true sign of an excellent restaurant, where the utmost attention is paid to every detail, is the presence of designer toothpicks, often the very last and most forgettable element of any dining experience. It may seem a frivolous item to (...)
The small, spare exhibition space of the Photographic Gallery, located on the American University in Cairo's New Campus, currently hosts images by almost thirty photographers, spanning a wide range of subjects and styles. Moving from a peaceful, (...)
Inji Aflatoun is a painter whose art is difficult to separate from her politics. But Aflatoun's ideology and fighting spirit enriched her work, and her work, in turn, enriched her activism. Her paintings were about Egypt, Egyptian people, and very (...)
On the opening night of “Lessons in Revolting”, Rawabet Theater was packed full, leaving many disappointed latecomers turned away at the door. The audience was eager to see the latest work by playwright Laila Soliman, which she co-directed and (...)
Almost nothing can more completely foil a plan than a war followed by a protracted occupation. But despite an impressive array of obstacles, the University of Mosul in Iraq is going ahead with an ambitious project: building a new library to revive (...)
Amid the late summer lull, two commercial galleries in Cairo have turned to old favorites to carry them through Ramadan. Tache Art Gallery at Designopolis has assembled its latest show as a presentation of “icons of Egypt's contemporary art scene,” (...)