Portrait: new gallery down town

Last night, I went to see Ahmad Nosseir's exhibition at a newly opened gallery (It nears its year of existence and is placed on top of El Nadwa Al Thakafeya cafe on Falaky street).

I already knew Ahmad Nosseir's work and must say was positively surprised to see a few works that are straying away from his usual style. When I arrived I saw Nosseir together with Fathi Affifi (an interesting artist himself) discussing animatedly a huge painting. It seemed to me that Fathi was discussing painting technicalities with Nosseir. While I walked through the gallery looking at the exhibited works, I recognized once again the strong influence of the late works of Edward Munch in Nosseir's works. For my eye though I would definitely prefer to have a Munch than a Nosseir (not that I could afford any of them, specially not Munch), and I'd probably hang neither of them on my walls. Too much anxiety and too many monsters are bound to have negative influence on the vibes of a place. This is not to say that I discard them as artists. Both of them have works I like.

Later while talking with Nosseir, I complimented him on the few pieces that I liked and found out that he considered those as unfinished works.

As it was the first time I went to the gallery, I went into the inner sanctum to discover an artist I did not know. Reda Abdel Rahman is the owner of Portrait gallery and some of his works are exhibited in there. I hope to see his works exhibited for the public sometime soon. Reda's work was a discovery for me. What has not been a discovery though was that his gallery does not have yet a website (seems technology is not the forte of Egyptian artists).

Portrait the gallery also publishes a monthly magazine that claims to be the first such publication concentrating on Art in the Arab world. They have already published ten releases.

While strolling out I saw an invite for an exhibition by Dina El Gharib. It will be on at the Gezira Art Center from February 3rd to February 17th. Dina is a very talented and sarcastic artist and her exhibitions are always quite interesting. Strongly recommended.