Exhibitions

b. 1952 Behera, Egypt, Adel El Siwi lives and works in Cairo, Egypt.While studying medicine at Cairo University in the 1970s El Siwi developed his painting practice through independent study at the Faculty of Fine Arts. Completing his education in 1976, he began painting full time in 1979, relocating to Milan, Italy in 1980 where he lived and worked for a decade before returning to Cairo in 1990.El Siwi’s first major exhibition was at the Cairo Atelier, Egypt (1980) and since then he has exhibited widely across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, with solo shows at Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo, Egypt (1988–2017); Epreuve d’Artiste, Beirut, Lebanon (1993); Accademia d’Egitto, Rome, Italy (1996); Ammar Farhat, Tunis, Tunisia (2003); Al Riwaq, Manama, Bahrain (2003); Atassy Gallery, Damascus, Syria (2004); French Cultural Center, Alexandria, Egypt (2005); Mahmoud Khalil Museum, Cairo, Egypt (2010) and Galerie Inception, Paris, France (2012).He has presented solo exhibitions at the Tabari Artspace galleries in London, UK (2013) and Dubai (2007–2017).He has participated in the Cairo Biennale (1996, 2008), the Sharjah Biennial (1997), and the Venice Biennale (2009) and has been included in many international group exhibitions, including at the Chelsea Art Museum, New York (2008); Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2012) and the Egyptian Academy, Rome, Italy (2014). His work is held by the British Museum, London, UK; The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; Kinda Foundation, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunis, as well as in many private collections. In addition to his career as a visual artist, El Siwi has translated numerous art historical texts into Arabic, including writing by Giuseppe Ungaretti, Paul Klee and Leonardo da Vinci.