Cairo: Paintings of the Italian artist Omar Galliani and Egyptian artist Essam Marouf surprised viewers with their similarity of style in the “Muse” exhibition, which opened Sunday in Ofok Gallery. The two artist show individual experiments although there are areas of similarities; they seem to belong to the same school of thought: their sources of inspiration were almost the same, said Ehab el-Labban director of Ofok Gallery. "Life is our muse," Essam Marouf said. “Inspiration of life is what brings us together. I'm glad to share this exhibition with this Italian artist who shows his work for the first time in Egypt," he added. He said Marino Paduana, the exhibition's organizer, chose to show Galliani`s work with him because both artists use a similar thing with different material. “I love colors and my paintings full of life, and Galliani uses black and white and single shades, and I think that if he used colors in his paintings, Paduana would never think to show our work together," Marouf added. The exhibition was in the framework of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Italian unit in Egypt. "It will compare the works and style of two of the most important artists of Italian and Egyptian contemporary art," said the ambassador of Italy to Egypt, Claudio Pacifico. "Two artists whose styles find a common denominator in the representation of faces and female figures- hence the title of the exhibition," Pacifico added.
