By Nii B. Andrews.
It is always uplifting when an artist successfully disregards classic conventions of figurative drawing and instead produces a fresh perspective that welds her indigenous culture with modernity.
Hayam Abdelbaky, an Egyptian artist who works out of Cairo produces paintings that are an eloquent and erudite commentary on contemporary urban and rural life in her country.
Her work deftly produces a cohesive unit of people at work or at play. There is no mistaking the dominant role of a female figure in her paintings.
In addition multiple symbolic elements are exhibited with layers of meaning.
She says with a rhetorical thrust, “I always ask myself if there were no wars, destruction and conflicts, would we live in peace?”
She has intimated that in her paintings she strives to portray people as one cohesive unit dreaming of peace, safety and refusing destruction, wars and bloodshed .
“We all live under the same sky, our feelings are one. In essence we are one being, despite the wishes of those in power. We all pay the price of their desires and greed”, she says.
On account of the delicate rendering of her figures, her paintings transcend their child like or playful air – or if you will, naivety; they certainly are not childish paintings to anyone but the uninitiated.
Abdelbaky obtained a Masters in Oil Painting from Ain Shams University and a PhD degree in Philosophy of Art Education at Cairo University.
She has been a frontline artist in the busy and important Egyptian art scene since 1995; participated in many important international art events including the latest 1-54 fair held in New York City.
Her work is held in several leading museums and other prestigious public and private art collections.
Currently, she is represented by the Ubuntu Gallery.
