hossam dirar | portfolio
DESCRIPTION
Egyptian-born visual artist Hossam Dirar (1978) celebrates beauty. Combining fragmented images of faces, at times of the whole body, Dirar paints chaotic, impulsive and richly multi-layered texturized palettes to express individual identity. Selected as one of the twelve emerging artists of great promise from around the world by Saatchi chief curator in their series 'Invest in Art' in 2013, Dirar resuscitates the two-thousand year old art of the Egyptian Fayoum portraits. And while the Fayoum portraits were created to preserve the memory of each individual in the closest way possible, Dirar's portraits are invented identities, borrowed from an instantaneous stolen glance. Each work depicts an anonymous woman Dirar met – at a café, in a street, at an airport. He conceives his work as a re-interpretation of his memory, of that brief encounter, overlapping between the multi-cultural characters of where they met and his personal take of that instant of visual pleasure.TRANSCRIPT
HOSSAM DIRAR
HOSSAM DIRAR – BIOGRAPHY
Egyp3an-‐born visual ar3st Hossam Dirar (1978) celebrates beauty. Combining fragmented images of faces, at 3mes of the whole body, Dirar paints chao3c, impulsive and richly mul3-‐layered texturized paleRes to express individual iden3ty. Selected as one of the twelve emerging ar3sts of great promise from around the world by Saatchi chief curator in their series 'Invest in Art' in 2013, Dirar resuscitates the two-‐thousand year old art of the Egyp3an Fayoum portraits. And while the Fayoum portraits were created to preserve the memory of each individual in the closest way possible, Dirar's portraits are invented iden33es, borrowed from an instantaneous stolen glance. Each work depicts an anonymous woman Dirar met – at a café, in a street, at an airport. He conceives his work as a re-‐interpreta3on of his memory, of that brief encounter, overlapping between the mul3-‐cultural characters of where they met and his personal take of that instant of visual pleasure. Dirar creates his own portraiture universe with knives and oil, elaborately adding layer over layer. Yet he manages to give the feeling of a quick rendering of a face before it is forgoRen. Perhaps the invisible that the ar3st is chasing in his work is the phantom idea of beauty, trying to con3nue the tradi3on of personifying 3me. 1995-‐2000 BA Fine Art, Faculty of Appied Arts, Helwan University Graphic design, pain3ng, printmaking and mixed media.
Hossam Dirar selected as one amongst 12 new emerging ar3sts of great promise from around the world in Invest in Art -‐ on Saatchi Online Curated by Saatchi Art, Chief Curator Rebecca Wilson.
B E A U T Y
A N D T H E
B E A S T
S A B H A N
A D A M
H O S S A M
D I R A R
Tale As Old As Time, 2013 Oil and mixed media on canvas 122 x 122 cm USD 5,200 HD-101 SOLD
Once upon a dream, 2013 Oil and mixed media on canvas 121 x 115 cm USD 2,900 HD-102 SOLD
Won’t you come with me to paradise, 2013 Oil and mixed media on canvas 131 x 84 cm USD 2,300 HD-103
Tell me there is a heaven, 2013 Oil and mixed media on canvas 107 x 81 cm USD 4,000 HD-104
On the other side of the road, 2013 Oil and mixed media on canvas 131 x 84 cm USD 4,000 HD-105
Before she disappears into midnight, 2013 Oil and mixed media on canvas 127 x 127 cm USD 3,900 HD-106
She is like the wind, 2013 Oil and mixed media on canvas 141 x 133 cm USD 7,150 HD-108
Good girls go to heaven, 2013 Oil and mixed media on canvas 141 x 141 cm USD 6,800 HD-109 SOLD
I promise you a rose garden, 2013 Oil on canvas 121 x 111 cm USD 5,200 HD-110
I think we met before in my dreams, 2013 Oil on canvas 121 x 111 cm USD 6,200 HD-111
Mirror, mirror, on the Wall Oil on canvas 121 x 121 cm USD 7,200 HD-107 SOLD
16
Founder Fatenn Mostafa +201005550585 Gallery Director Cherine Chafik +201003838100 Gallery Assistant Aynoor Zeitoun +201004777717 Gallery Administrator Lisa Lounis +201003970141 8 el Kamel Mohamed Street. Zamalek. Cairo. Egypt. OPEN DAILY FROM 11AM TO 8PM FRIDAYS FROM 3 – 8PM [email protected] www.arttalks.com Facebook Page: Art Talks Egypt www.issuu.com/ArtTalks +20227363948 +201005550585
Founded in 2010, ArtTalks | Egypt has established itself as a highly selective search engine for Egypt ’s next generat ion of contemporary artists and an authority on high quality secondary market works by twentieth century Egyptian masters and many of the most important artists working today. ArtTalks manages the estate of the late pioneer painter and sculptor Sobhy Guirguis (1929-2013). Part of ArtTalks income is channeled into an Art Fund to support high potential emerging artists and to finance an extensive educational program aimed at growing the number of art collectors and art patrons in Egypt. We run a yearly curriculum on the history of Egyptian modern and contemporary art and invite scholars from abroad to give talks to the public. Founded by arts patron Fatenn Mostafa, former CEO of Gianaclis Vineyards for Beverages and former advisor to Bozar, Center of Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium, the gallery is committed to the defense of freedom of art in Egypt and to strengthen Egypt's position on the regional art map.