Beyond The Lines’ is an exhibition of mixed media paintings featuring the works of Egyptian artists Ayman Elsemary, Ibrahim Ahmed and Ibrahim Khatab. Although these three artists share a similar technique, based on a reductive process, their fabrications draw from different urban experiences. Ahmed, a product of a transient upbringing, recently moved
to Cairo where he now lives and works, while Elsemary and Khatab grew up in the outskirts of Cairo. Without previously knowing each other these artists created a body of work that harmonizes a visual aesthetic. Drawing from a pastiche of urban experiences, these artists’ works speak abstractly to the interconnectedness of the human experience, and viscerally to the detritus of urban environments.
Elsemary explores his childhood memories and documents them by referencing the decaying walls he saw as a child, creating layered paintings with pastel colors. Ahmed explores the theme of a shared human experience, using textiles from around the world, overlaid with colors seen in his travels, including from the streets of Ard il Lewa where he now
keeps his art studio. Khatab grew up making a living by hand painting advertisements, this later being the focus of his work, overlapping movie posters and paint to address consumerism and its effects on Egypt’s landscape. Beyond The Lines highlights the similarities of these three Egyptian artists’ visual language, materialized through an accumulation of visual memories on their life walls. Together they reflect three poets, writing love poems for one lover.
- HAMDY REDA

فناء فندق الماريوت ١٦-١٤ يونيو، ٢٠١٥
CAIRO MARRIOTT HOTEL COURTYARD - ZAMALEK. JUNE 14-16, 2015

Curated by Hamdy Reda
Produced by CLUSTER
as part of the Egypt Urban Forum
Organized by the Ministry of Housing, Ministry of Urban Renewal, and UNHabitat