The 2017 edition of Abu Dhabi Art, one of the leading art fairs in the Middle East.
With a diverse selection of some of the region’s foremost names, the gallery's booth offers a look at a range of works by Adel El Siwi and Khaled Zaki.
About Adel El Siwi
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.
About Khaled Zaki
1964 Suez, Egypt, Khaled Zaki lives and works between Cairo, Egypt and Pietrasanta, Italy.Zaki holds a Master in Restoration from the Faculty of Archaeology, University of Cairo. He studied Sculpture at the Al Khonany Museum of Art, Giza, Egypt before moving to Italy in 1988 to train in the use of stone and bronze in the studios and workshops of Pietrasanta.His first solo exhibition in Egypt was held at Gezirah Art Center, Cairo (2002). His work has been included in exhibitions at Safar Khan, Cairo (2002), Gallery Misr, Cairo (2014), Heist, London, UK (2015) and 7th Beijing International Biennale (2017). He was selected to represent Egypt at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013).He was the first foreign winner of the Pietrasanta Painting Prize (1989) and in 2000 won a competition for the design and execution of a monumental sculpture in Galaa Square, Cairo. In 2015 he received the International Artist prize from Art Taipei, Taiwan.His works can be found in the Egyptian Museum for Modern Art, Cairo, and Egyptian Museum for Modern Sculpture, Aswan, as well as in private collections in the United States, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia.
