“Debunking Orientalism: A Group Show of Contemporary Egyptian Art” Exhibition
The Untitled Space
This event has ended.
Curated by Nagla Samir
SYRA Arts and The Untitled Space are pleased to present the group show, “Debunking Orientalism: A Group Show of Contemporary Egyptian Art” featuring works by emerging and established artists who live and work out of Egypt, from Cairo, Beheira, Sohag and Alexandria. Artists include: Ahmed Morsi, Adel El Siwi, Armen Agop, Essam Darwish, Farouk Hosny, Galila Nawar, Marwa Adel, Mina Nasr, Mohamed Ardash, Muhammad Mahdy, Ramses Marzouk, and Yasser Rostom. Additionally the exhibit will be showcasing jewelry by acclaimed designer Azza Fahmy.
The exhibition offers a window onto a landscape comprised of a multiplicity of approaches, styles and engagements by artists working simultaneously and engaging with various narratives within the art scene in Egypt. In recent years, the art of the region has been subject to a cultural clustering which effectively flattens the varied artistic production by viewing it as contingent upon geopolitical context. Egypt’s long history with Orientalism has subjected it to both internal and external visual paradigms that epistemologically cling to such Eurocentric notions.
The diversity of artists represented in this show celebrates the pluralism and dynamism of the contemporary Egyptian art scene. The works resonate locally and internationally, without necessarily pandering to the model of ‘hybridity,’ which has been a favored mode through which to view regional art – as operating in a liminal space between East and West. Some of the artists work out of Egypt, whilst some engage directly with their surroundings, and others create an altogether unique visual vernacular.
“Debunking Orientalism: A Group Show of Contemporary Egyptian Art”’ is an exhibition that aims to create a new vocabulary in the hope of bringing a deeper insight to an old vision of the Eastern world, through Egyptian artists who are finding their own unique language that speaks to the universal humanity… It is important to explore how contemporary Egyptian artists have not only challenged the status quo, but have also expressed a genre of art so unique to the true culture of the Middle East that ‘Orientalism’ as it was constructed as a device of understanding the region, unravels as truly fictitious.”
– Curator Nagla Samir
Media
Schedule
from April 12, 2016 to April 17, 2016
Exhibit On View: April 13th – 16th 12:00pm – 6:00pm, April 17th 12:00pm - 4:00pm
Opening Reception on 2016-04-12 from 18:00 to 20:00