Ahmed Nosseir أحمد نصير

In The Search Of Enlightenment - 2018 - Acrylic On Canvas - 180x128cm

Harassment Attempt - 2018 - Oil On Paper - 71x100cm

Splendid Conspiracy - 2018 - Oil On Canvas - 175x147cm

Silent Conversation - 2018 - Oil On Canvas - 129x106cm

The Hug - 2018 - Acrylic On Canvas - 90x120cm

Bulimia - 2018 - Oil On Paper - 100x70cm

Totems - 2018 - Oil On Paper - 98x71cm

Mystery Call - 2018 - Oil On Canvas - 130x110cm

Proud Beggar - 2018 - Oil On Canvas - 150x127cm

Proud Beggar || - 2018 - Oil On Canvas - 110x130cm

Proud Beggar ||| - 2018 - Oil On Canvas - 130x110cm

The Kâ - 2018 - Oil On Canvas - 147x147cm

The Journey - 2014/18 - Oil On Canvas - 117x209cm

The Wheel - 2014/18 - Oil On Canvas - 207x130cm

The Sorcerer - 2017 - Oil On Canvas - 210x118cm

An Ear of Mud, An Ear of Paste - Homage to Abdel Hadi El Gazzar - 2018 - Oil On Canvas - 124x110cm

The Mouled - 2018 - Acrylic On Canvas - 180x130cm

The Mouled || - 2018 - Acrylic On Canvas - 180x130cm

The Singer - 2018 - Mix Media On Paper - 35x25,5cm

The Knight - 2018 - Mix Media On Paper - 25,5x36cm

The Knight || - 2018 - Mix Media On Paper - 20x30,5cm

Face in Yellow & Figure - 2018 - Mix Media On Paper - 28x37,5cm

The Bat - 2017 - Mix Media On Paper - 29,5x21cm

The Winged - 2017 - Mix Media On Paper - 30x29cm

The Triple Face Man - 2018 - Mix Media On Paper - 29,5x20,5cm

Fatal Irony - 2018 - Mix Media On Paper - 30x20,5cm

Ambiguous Encounter - 2018 - Mix Media On Paper - 30,5x20,5cm

The Chair - 2018 - Mix Media On Paper - 29,5x21cm

Ahmed Nosseir’s paintings are deeply rooted in twentieth-century and contemporary Egyptian art. He is the heir of painters like Abdel Hadi El Gazzar, Hamed Nada, or Maher Raïf, whom the Egyptian art critic Aimé Azar called the ‘Tragic Painters’ for the social critique behind their art works. Alongside his modern predecessors, Nosseir brings into his art work the influence of other traditions, from Christian icons to Pacific Indian totems, which reflect a world of imagination uniquely his own.

Nosseir stands out from his contemporaries for the psychological power of his paintings. The painter wishes to hide nothing with his images, but express the most fantastic flights of his imagination. Popular superstitions and religious traditions that mix the divine with evil inspire many of his pictures with the ambience of Egyptian Zar, a kind of exorcism ritual with roots in sub-Saharan Africa. Out of this personal psychology comes the universality of his art, unveiling the inward drama of every life—between good and evil, between morality and the absence of any such code—that such fantasies express.

These paintings, with their strange portraits of beasts and predatory figures, hold a distant mirror to society, not unlike the art works of El Gazzar. But rather than portray the exterior scenes of poverty or social conditions, Nosseir’s pictures stand as allegories of society’s corruption and hypocrisy, and the effects these have on our imaginative life. Yet this spirit of social criticism is balanced a spirit of ironical ambiguity, and a darkly humorous touch. In many of these menacing pictures, it is not clear who is the victim or who is the perpetrator, as both grin in an embrace.

Nosseir’s technique superbly expresses the psychological nature of his paintings. His dark and suffused backgrounds contrast with brighter colors and the energy in his violent brush strokes. Out of this tension, however, comes a painterly harmony in the contrast between colors, fractured lines and thickly laid upon paints.

Amir-Hussein Radjy

Ahmed Nosseir was born in Cairo and attended Cairo’s School of Fine Arts, where the painter Hamed Nada mentored him. After studying at the École Nationale des Beaux Arts, Paris, he lived for ten years in Argentina, where he became interested in Amazonian Indian traditions, as well as North American arts.

Ahmed NosseirBorn in Cairo, in 1957

1985 - Graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Cairo, Egypt1988 - 1990 Attended Paris Higher College of Arts, France1990 - 2000 Resided in Buenos Aires, Argentina2000 - Until now, lives and works in Cairo, Egypt

Selected Exhibitions

1987 Mashrabeya gallery, Cairo, Egypt1988 Mashrabeya gallery, Cairo, Egypt1990 Zad Al Rimal gallery, Cairo, Egypt1991 A.T.C gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina1992 Skoto gallery, New York, USA1993 Skoto gallery, New York, USA1994 Bronx River art center, New York, USA1996 The Legend of Memory, Skoto, New York, USA1996 L.Kahan gallery, New York, USA1997 University of Ohio, Contemporary African Art, Causes & Effects, USA1998 Skoto gallery, New York, USA2001 Karim Francis Gallery, Cairo, Egypt2001 Karim Francis Gallery - La Bodega, Cairo, Egypt2002 Sarajevo International Winter Exhibition, Bosnia2002 Group show, American University in Cairo, Egypt2002 Art Center, Cairo, Egypt2002 Karim Francis Gallery - Seattle, Cairo, Egypt2005 Mashrabia Gallery, Cairo, Egypt2006 Zamalek Art Gallery, Cairo, Egypt2010 Delegation of European Union, Cairo, Egypt 2016 Karim Francis Gallery, Cairo, Egypt2018 Karim Francis Gallery, Cairo, Egypt2019 Karim Francis Gallery, Cairo, Egypt

أحمد نصير Ahmed Nosseir

قاعة كريم فرنسيس : ١ شارع الشريفني • ثالث شارع يمني من شارع قصر النيل • وسط ا ملدينة • القاهرة • مصرر

Karim Francis Gallery : 1, El Sherifein Street • 3rd street right off Kasr El Nil Street • Downtown • Cairo • Egypt

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