Baraka – March 2018

March 11th – March 31st, 2018

Exhibition Location:

Ubuntu Art Gallery

Tel: +20100 279 2223
Email: info@ubuntuartgallery.com
Address: 20 Hassan Sabry Street, Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt

Artist Statement

This collection grew from my last exhibition, Angles of Tradition, as I have always been drawn to the many people we cross paths with on a daily basis in the streets of Cairo. Nevertheless, when the attack on El Botrosseya Church struck in December 2016, I started seeking symbols uniting all Egyptians. Looking into Ancient Egyptian motifs, but also religious symbols across time, I realised that the fish was a very powerful symbol.

In Ancient Egypt, the fish was a symbol of fertility and regeneration. It has also been used a secret code among Christians, in Islam it is a symbol of eternal life and knowledge, and in Judaism, of fertility and luck. The fish is connotative in many different faiths and all parts of the world.

The Egyptian street has always been a source of inspiration, and I tend to focus on the form itself and the challenges it poses. How we see it and its negative, how we can simplify or make it more complex, deconstruct and put it back together.

This collection essentially depicts the many different people and professions on the streets of Cairo, and reminds us of our unity through the symbol of the fish. It is also a realization that we are all part of the same picture, working towards the betterment of each other. Our unity is our biggest blessing, our baraka.

Mehri Khalil

Mehri and her Artistic Credentials

Mehri Khalil is a well-versed and knowledgeable artist. She has advanced in her academic studies in different fields of art, art management and museology. After graduating from the American University in Cairo, she received her master’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She also trained at the world-renowned Louvre Museum. At the moment, she is a PhD candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, researching the interactive dialogue between modern Egyptian artists within the broader artistic movement in France. Mehri is fluent in French and English, enabling her to read international artistic material extensively.

Based on this accumulated knowledge, Mehri is open minded and intelligent, and possesses many skills in drawing and painting, as well as visual creativity. She has an investigative approach when dealing with different media and tools on the surface of her canvas. She experiments with her paintings as they mature in different stages, with various techniques, until she is confident in her work from both a structural and aesthetic point of view. This is done based on her personal sensitivity and in search of commonalities between the works of the same exhibition, and on the qualitative distinctions between one work and another.

Mehri’s works are characterized by balance, harmony and purity, and her colour scheme is uniquely her own. Despite her modesty, she has achieved a great artistic accomplishment. Based on aesthetic principles, her knowledge and her own personality, these works presented in Mehri’s second solo exhibition effortlessly reveal these values.

 

Mostafa El Razzaz

بركة

تطورت هذه المجموعة من معرضي الأخير “رؤى تراثية” لأنني كنت دائما منجذبة لمختلف أبناء وأهالي مصر اللذين اعبر سبيلهم بصفة يومية في شوارعنا. بالرغم من ذلك، بعد الهجوم على الكنيسة البطرسية في ديسمبر 2016, بدأت البحث عن رموز توحد جميع المصريين. و بالنظر الي الزخارف المصرية القديمة و أيضا الرموز الدينية عبر الزمان، ادركت ان الأسماك رمز قوى جدا.

كانت الأسماك عند القدماء المصريين رمز للخصوبة والتجدد. في اليهودية الأسماك رمز للخصوبة والحظ، في المسيحية كانت تستخدم كرمز سري و في الإسلام تمثل المعرفة و الحياة الأبدية. الأسماك هي دلالة في الأديان المختلفة وجميع انحاء العالم.

لقد كان الشارع المصري دائما مصدر الهامي واميل الي التركيز على الشكل نفسه والتحديات التي يطرحها، كيف نرى الشكل و  عليها المترتبة الفراغات و كيف يمكننا تبسيطه او تعقيده و تفكيكه ثم إعادة بناءه مرة أخرى.

هذه المجموعة تجسد بشكل أساسي الناس باختلافاتها والمهن المتعددة في شوارع القاهرة، وتذكرنا بوحدتنا من خلال رمز الأسماك. كما انها إدراك باننا جميعا جزء من نفس الصورة عاملين تجاه تحسين بعضنا البعض. وحدتنا هي أكبر نعمة لدينا، هي بركتنا.

مهرى خليل