Rana El Nemr (also Rana Elnemr, Egyptian, born 1974 in Hanover, Germany) is a visual artist based in Cairo, Egypt. [1] Working primarily in photography, she has undertaken explorations of contemporary Egyptian urban life, including Cairo's architectural features, public/private spaces, middle-class identity, and the larger urban environment. Her artistic practice moves from formalist explorations of photography as a medium to genre-bending visual essays of her surroundings in Egypt. Her practice is anchored in questioning what it means to live and experience place and time, through recording, describing, and reflecting on this experience via photography, film, texts and conversations. El Nemr's artistic process incorporates formal image-making techniques with contemporary artistic practices, and it strives to integrate various forms of collaborations in different constellations, such as trans-disciplinary collaborations and alternative pedagogical practices among many others. [2] She is a co-founder of the Contemporary Image Collective (CIC), an institution founded in 2004 in Downtown Cairo, whose programming includes lectures, screenings, and workshops that explore the changing role of photography in contemporary visual culture. [3] El Nemr remains an active board member of CiC. [4]
El Nemr studied photojournalism, advertising, and arts at the American University, Cairo. She has exhibited internationally, including in Lebanon, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Finland, and the United States. [4] One of El Nemr's noted series, The Metro, from 2003, presents women in traditional and non-tradition clothing in the Cairo subway, compositionally framed by the structure of the train cars. [5]
Gazbia Sirry was an Egyptian painter.
African Photography Encounters is a biennial exhibition in Bamako, Mali, held since 1994. The exhibition, featuring exhibits by contemporary African photographers, is spread over several Bamako cultural centers, including the National Museum, the National Library, the Modibo Keïta memorial, and the District Museum. The exhibition also features colloquia and film showings. The most recent biennial took place in 2017.
Maison Bonfils was a French family-run company producing and selling photography and photographic products from Beirut from 1867 until 1918, from 1878 on renamed "F. Bonfils et Cie". The Bonfils ran the first and, in their time, most successful photographic studio in the city. Maison Bonfils produced studio portraits, staged biblical scenes, landscapes, and panoramic photographs.
Shadi Ghadirian is an Iranian contemporary photographer. Her work is influenced by her experiences as a Muslim woman living in contemporary Iran, but her work also relates to the lives of women throughout the world. Through her work, she critically comments on the pushes and pulls between tradition and modernity for women living in Iran, as well as other contradictions that exist in everyday life. She explores the topics of censorship, religion, modernity, and the status of women. Ghadirian gained international recognition through the series Qajar and Like Every Day in 1998 and 2001. She is living and working in Tehran.
Evelyn Ashamallah is an Egyptian Contemporary artist, best known for her vibrant and surrealistic works. Born to a Coptic Christian family in Desouk, Kafr el-Sheikh, Egypt in 1948 to Ashamallah Eskandar Hanna and Elaine Mikhail Hanna. Evelyn Ashamallah married an Egyptian Journalist, Mahmoud Yousry and they have two sons, Bassem Yoursi and Salam Yoursi. Evelyn Ashamallah also has three brothers. Evelyn Ashamallah is part of the 1970s Egyptian generation which was prompted after the defeat in the Arab-Israeli War of 1967 to adopt a different trend from the realistic art that dominated Egyptian visual art in the 1960s. In the 1980s she moved to Algeria for a few years.
Abdel Hadi Al Gazzar (1925–1966) was an Egyptian painter. He occupies a unique position among the artists of his generation. His membership in the Contemporary Art Group elevated his status as an artist through his utilization of social commentary in addition to the group's focus on traditional, Egyptian identity. This commentary is most widely recognized in his painting, The High Dam, in which he comments on the effects of modernization by the Egyptian government on society and their way of life. Since his death, his work has not ceased to challenge artists, intellectuals and critics both in Egypt and abroad.
Ida Kar was a photographer active mainly in London after 1945. She took many black-and-white portraits of artists and writers. Her solo show of photographs at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1960 was the first of its kind to be held in a major public gallery in London. Kar thus made a significant contribution to the recognition of photography as a form of fine art.
Youssef Nabil was born on the 6th of November 1972. He is an Egyptian artist and photographer. Youssef Nabil began his photography career in 1992.
Sawsan Amer is an Egyptian painter and art educator, considered as a pioneer Egyptian woman artist. She has been Director of the Art Research Unit at the Academy of the Arts and a professor on the faculty of Art Education at the College of Art Education.
Lara Baladi is an acclaimed Egyptian-Lebanese photographer, archivist and multimedia artist. She was educated in Paris and London and currently lives in Cairo. Baladi exhibits and publishes worldwide. Her body of work encompasses photography, video, visual montages/collages, installations, architectural constructions, tapestries, sculptures and even perfume. Much of her work reflects her "concerns with Egypt's extremely alarming sociopolitical context."
Beirut Art Center is a space for exhibiting contemporary art in Beirut, Lebanon
Lamia Joreige is a Lebanese visual artist and filmmaker. She received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island. Since the late 1990s, her works have been widely displayed. She is a co founder and co director of the Beirut Art Center. In 2011, Sandra Dagher and Lamia Joreige organized “Museum as Hub: Beirut Art Center” at New York City's New Museum.
Contemporary art in Egypt refers to visual art, including installations, videos, paintings, or sculptures, developed in the Egyptian art scene. While the contemporary art scene is mainly concentrated in Cairo and Alexandria, it is developing fast with the emergence of spaces for artists, and support from the public or from abroad. Many Egyptian artists use the Egyptian contemporary art scene as a ramp toward the international art scenes.
Leila Alaoui was a French–Moroccan photographer and video artist. She worked as a commercial photographer for magazines and non-governmental organizations and completed assignments on refugees. Her work was exhibited widely and is held in the collection of Qatar Museums. Alaoui died from injuries suffered in a terrorist attack in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Calligraffiti is an art form that combines calligraphy, typography, and graffiti. It can be classified as either abstract expressionism or abstract vandalism. It is defined as a visual art that integrates letters into compositions that attempt to communicate a broader message through writing that has been aesthetically altered to move beyond the literal meaning. Simply put, it is the conscious effort of making a word or group of words into a visual composition. As such it is meant to be both an aesthetic experience and provocative art—mixing tradition and precision with modern unbridled self-expression.
Huda Lutfi is a visual artist and cultural historian from Cairo, Egypt. Lutfi's works include paintings, collages, and installations that reflect a diverse style including pharaonic, Coptic, Western, Islamic, and contemporary international.
Rula Halawani is a Palestinian photographer and educator who lives and works in Jerusalem.
Bahia Shehab is an Egyptian multidisciplinary artist, designer, historian, creative director, educator and activist based in Cairo. Her work is concerned with identity and cultural heritage, and uses Islamic art history and in particular Islamic calligraphy and graphic design to explore contemporary Arab politics, feminist discourse and social issues.
Rana al-Tonsi is an Egyptian writer and poet.