Wael Darweish

1975

Egypt

Education

2008 PhD, Contemporary Painting Philosophy, Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University
2003 MFA, Painting and Drawing Department, Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University
1998 BA, Helwan University in Cairo, Egypt

Wael Darweish is an Egyptian painter, video, and installation artist whose paintings are primarily concerned with human movement and the quest for freedom. His portfolio of works consists of technical studies of modern society in all its forms — cultural, social, economic, and their impacts on the modern man.

In his mixed media works and installations, Darweish applies assemblages to create sculptural forms that transcend those of two-dimensionality, through which he studies and experiments with his use of collage: combining colour, calligraphy, textile, and various textural media. He experiments in these with the aim to explore issues of gender, independence, freedom, space, and the passing of time. Apart from this, he also aims to prove several phenomenons that constitute his own obsessions, such as; subjugation, liberty, and the constraints of time. He is deeply interested in how these themes could potentially relate to the subject matters which he employs in his own works, including elements of migration, gender, and identity amongst other themes that attract other Egyptian artists of his generation.

In the past few years, Darweish has been particularly interested in changing his perceptions, due to the state of continuous social metamorphosis that Egypt, an African and Middle Eastern country colonised and liberated, has witnessed in the last three decades.

His recent painting projects have been inspired by American colour field paintings and French lyrical abstraction, in which large ‘fields’ of flat solid colours harmoniously colonise large areas of the canvas to create a homogenous surface of flat planes. In these works, he stresses on the overall consistency of form over the brush movement and brushstrokes. Contrary to standard colour field paintings and lyrical abstractions, he has successfully combined the two opposing abstraction styles with elements of figuration and cognitive representation.

Darweish’s 2010 pieces show an effective use of his cumulative experience as a painter as well as an interdisciplinary artist, by creating canvases that utilise photography as a base for his paintbrush, stripping the image of its background. Throughout this process, he creates and narrates an alternative reality for the figures that occupy the original photograph. The streets of Cairo are present in these works, which represent contemporary Middle Eastern urban cities — ordinary citizens who dwell in streets and alleyways alongside soldiers and traffic policemen. Every photographed or painted figure plays a different role, interacting with each other in an almost hyperrealistic universe. Darweish’s fundamental aim is to push the limits of ordinary painting by exploring what photography can add to the canvas: frozen reality and depth of field.

Selected Events

Lecturing

2019 PhD, Professor, Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University
2014 PhD, Associate Professor, Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University

Solo Exhibitions

2018 “Not expect,” DAI Art Gallery, Cairo, Egypt.
2017 “Visual Code,” Capital Gallery, Cairo, Egypt.
2016 “Time Intermezzo,” Zamalek Art Gallery, Cairo, Egypt.
2015 “The Prank,” Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2014 “Disappearance,” Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2013 C0llective View, Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2012 Safarkhan Gallery, Cairo, Egypt.
2012 Egyptian Embassy, Zagreb, Croatia.
2012 Egyptian Embassy, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
2012 Witness, Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2011 Gallery, Museum Lendava, Slovenia.
2010 Shrouded Memories, Artsawa Gallery, Dubai,United Arab Emirates.
2009 Cairo Atelier, Cairo, Egypt.
2008 El Gezera Art Center, Cairo, Egypt.
2007 Cairo Atelier, Cairo, Egypt.
2006 Cairo Atelier, Cairo, Egypt.
2003 Cairo Atelier, Cairo, Egypt.
2002 Center of Arts, Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt.

Group Shows

2019 “Mirage of Hope,” The International Organization for Migration (IOM), Tunisia.
2019 Miller Art Museum, Wisconsin, Sturgean Bay, United States.
2019 “Like You, Like Me,” N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit, Michigan, United States.
2019 “Cairo Reflection,” Al Hanager Arts Center, Cairo Opera House, Egypt.
2018 First International Biennale and Art Symposium, Veliko Gradista Pozarevac, Serbia.
2018 International Art Festival (ode to Life), prestigious gallery venue of Royal Palace Petrovid, Podgorica, Montenegro.
2018 N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit, Michigan, United States.
2018 III International Art Colony “Artefact,” Veliko Gradište, Republic of Serbia.
2018 XII International Art Colony “Love and Understanding with a Message of Peace,” Požarevac, Republic of Serbia.
2018 “A Guide for Our Times”, Caravan’s, Sotheby’s, London, United Kingdom.
2018 The 16 Fine Artes Festival, Monastir, Tunisia.
2018 The 2th International Art Symposium, Katara, Qatar.
2017 The 12th International Art Colony, “My Balkan,” Požarevac, Republic of Serbia.
2016 The 1st Aila Art Symposium, Jordan.
2016 International Art Symposium, New Delhi, India.
2015 Cairo Amman Bank International Art Symposium 2, Amman, Jordan.
2015 Galleries Night, Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2015 1st Narrative Movements, The Jehan Hotel, New Delhi, India.
2015 1st Moscow Art Fair – “A Dialogue Through the Language of Art,” Gallery Kremlin, Moscow, Russia.
2014 Caravan 3, Cairo Opera House, Egypt, National Cathedral in Washington D.C, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
2014 Art 14 London, Booth E10, Olympia, Kensington, London, United Kingdom.
2013 Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2013 Christie’s Dubai Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2013 Syri-Arts Exhibition & Auction, Beirut Exhibition Center, Downtown Beirut, Lebanon.
2013 The 55th Venice Biennale, The Maldivian Pavilion, Venice, Italy.
2013 Art 13 London, Booth E10, Olympia, Kensington, London, United Kingdom.
2012 Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2012 Christie’s Auction, Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2011 10th International Fine Arts Colony, Monošter/Szentgotthárd, Hungary.
2011 Menasart Art Fair, Beirut International Exhibition, Leisure Center (Biel), Lebanon.
2011 Çankiri Karatekin University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Summer Academy, Ankara, Turkey.
2011 Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2010 Commissaries of the Egyptian Section, III Biennale of Art Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador.
2010 Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2010 Arab Cultural Week, Johannesburg, Eritrea, South Africa.
2010 15th Lind Art International Young Artists Fine Arts Colony, Gallery, Museum Lendava, Slovenia.
2010 “Black and White,” El Gezera Art Senter, Cairo, Egypt.
2010 “Land Of The Hyperreal,” Memorial Jose, Revolution Square, Havana, Kupa.
2009 Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2009 Bonjour la France Art Fair, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
2009 Darklight Film Festival, Dublin, Ireland.
2009 Dublin Electronic Arts Festival, D.E.A.F , Ireland.
2009 Undercurrent Contemporary Egyptian Art, Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2009 Aganda Exhibation, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt.
2009 Al Markayah Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi, Emirates Palace, United Arab Emirates.
2008 Cairo International Biennial 11, Cairo Opera House, Cairo, Egypt.
2008 Creative Expressions, Artsawa Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2008 Art Paris, Abu Dhabi, Emirates Palace, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2008 Artsawa Gallery Opening, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2008 Örebro International Video Art Festival, Sweden.
2008 Secrets Project, Dara El Finon, Amman, Jordan.
2008 Dubai Art Fair, United Arab Emirates, responses contemporary practices magazine.
2008 “From Athens to Marseille to Cairo,” Marseille, France.
2007 “What is Happening Today,” Cairo Opera House, Egypt.
2007 “The Days of the Egyptian Culture in India,” New Delhi, India.
2007 “The Present out of the Past Millennia,” Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
2007 “Imagining the Book II,” Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt.
2006 The 1st International Web Exhibition. www.ecartists.com.
2005 Contemporary Egyptian Paintings, Egyptian Academy, Rome, Italy.
2005 “Imagining the Book I,” Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt.
2005 “Art and Soul,” Cairo Opera House Gallery, Cairo, Egypt.
2004 Annual Salons of Young Artists, Akhenaton Galleries, Cairo, Egypt.
2003 Annual Salons of Miniatures, Akhenaton Galleries, Cairo, Egypt.
2002 6th International Ceramics Biennial, Cairo Opera House & Palace of Arts, Cairo, Egypt.
2002 Arab Visual Artists’ Exhibition, Taha Hussein Museum, Cairo, Egypt.
2001 Arab Visual Artists’ Exhibition, Taha Hussein Museum, Cairo, Egypt.
2000 5th International Ceramics Biennial, Cairo Opera House & Akhenaton Galleries, Cairo, Egypt. 1998
1998 Annual Salons of Young Artists, Akhenaton Galleries, Cairo, Egypt.

Art residencies

2019 “Don’t bite me!” International Art Symposium, Naples, Italy.
2018 The 12th International Art Colony – “My Balkan,” Požarevac, Republic of Serbia.
2016 2nd Year Machanents, International Symposium, Ejmiatsin, Armenian.
2015 1st Narrative Movements, The Jehan Hotel, New Delhi, India.
2015 1st Moscow Art Fair – “A Dialogue Through the Language of Art,” Gallery Kremlin, Moscow, Russia.
2015 2th International Thessaloniki Art Air, Thessaloniki, Greece.
2012 3th International Fine Arts Residence – “The Old School,” Gorna Lipnitsa 17 – 26 August, Pavlikeni, Bulgaria.
2011 10th International Fine Arts Colony, Monošter/Szentgotthárd, Hungary.
2011 Çankiri Karatekin University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Summer Academy, Ankara, Turkey.
2010 15th Lind Art International Young Artists Fine Arts Colony, Gallery-Museum Lendava, Slovenia.

Awards & Prizes

2018 Biennale Award at the First International Biennale and Art Symposium, Veliko Gradista Pozarevac, Serbia.
2018 1st prize, 15th Fine Arts Festival, Monastir, Tunisia.
2010 1st prize, 15th Lind Art International Young Artists Fine Arts Colony.
2003 Grand prize, 13th Salon of Young Artists, Cairo Opera House, Cairo, Egypt.
2002 The International Ceramics Biennial, Cairo Opera House & Akhenaton Galleries, Cairo, Egypt.
2000 Jury Prize, The All-Egyptian Artists Exhibition, Cairo Opera House, Cairo, Egypt.
1999 Jury Prize, 11th Salon of Young Artists, Cairo Opera House, Cairo, Egypt.
1998 1st prize, 10th Salon of Young Artists, Cairo Opera House, Cairo, Egypt.