For him Nubia is utopia, where he could soar with no limits and travel to a past that exists in the old lovely stories of grandmothers. Nubian people, homes and roads are just like precious stones that feed his imagination and increase his creativity. In his latest exhibition "Searching for Nubia", Egyptian artist Farid Fadel shows paintings of Nubian faces, ceremonies and marvellous landscapes that he captured during his journey to Nubia. There is a very Egyptian flavour and secret magic that permeates his work and touches the visitors. "Growing up in the sixties, Nubia seemed so far away almost like a fairyland, way beyond the known world! My artistic interest in Nubia, however, is relatively recent. “Hisham was the first young Nubian man I painted from life, specifically for an exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, in the autumn of 1997," Fadel said. "His dark skin tones posed a challenge, until I acquired more experience by painting his brother Amr Abdalla over a dozen times. One of the life drawings I made of Amr was featured on the invitation card of my second Toledo exhibition in 2000," he added. Nubia's strategic importance is based on the fact that it is the only continuously inhabited corridor between the Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Africa, which in many ways has shaped its history. Its name may come from the ancient Egyptian word "nub", meaning gold. Although no political entity exists under the name "Nubia" today, a common language and the Nile mark the boundaries of the land. On his trip to Nubia Fadel saw the graceful, proud people going about their daily activities, unaware of their captivating charm. He became obsessed with their beauty and started to paint. He painted faces ��" many faces that tell many stories about life full of happiness and sorrow. They also tell more about the history of their birth place, Nubia. "A flow of inspiration came over me when I attended the "henna" night of a Nubian wedding, during a Nile cruise in 2000. I enjoyed the festivities of dance, traditional singing and generous Nubian hospitality. This inspiration culminated in a rich body of work, which I showed in Cairo in 2001 under the title ‘Dreams of the South'," he said. He painted sailboats crossing each other, while whispering love poems to the passengers. Whether at twilight, dusk or in the early hours of dawn, their haunting magic holds us in a trance. In one of his paintings we could see sky and water embrace, squeezing gently some mountains blushing in pink. In another painting there was a row of palm trees swinging in a breeze that gently caressed some quiet white houses. Fadel once more mixes painting with poetry, as some of his paintings are linked to poems with the same title as the paintings (hanging beside the paintings and printed in the exhibition catalogue), like 'el-Sadria' (the pendant), which features a young Nubian girl holding a pendant, 'an gareeb' (soon), which shows a Nubian man flying a kite, 'koli ya Karag' (tell me, oh Karag), which features a sad Nubian woman waiting for happiness. Described by some people as a true "Renaissance Man", Farid Fadel was born in 1958 in Assiut, Upper Egypt, into a family known for its musicians and doctors. He has excelled at medicine, art and music and has held 40 solo exhibitions and given several piano, violine and song recitals. In the field of medicine he obtained his M.Sc. in ophthalmology and presently works as an eye specialist at the Memorial Institute of Ophthalmology, Giza . He was awarded the Pope's medal and Vatican Award in 1973 and the blue ribbon award of medicine as artist in Toledo in 1997. Fadel's works are realistic, as he follows a naturalistic approach in his art.
