AB Gallery is delighted to announce the group exhibition Egyptian Art Today featuring works by four artists. When people in Egypt went on the streets to demonstrate, when they were ready to give their lives in the fight for freedom they decorated the trees in Tahrir Square with papers with their wishes, hopes, demands and complaints. This impressive act was depicted in Mohamed Abouelnaga's Four Trees in Tahrir Square. To Abouelnaga the tree incorporates the relationship of Egyptians with the homeland: rooted in the ancient culture and its religious heritage the collective consciousness strives for freedom.

In contrast, Ahmed Badry explores not the great gestures, but the every-­‐day life issues, which appear may be on first sight inconspicuous. Through blowing up the size or putting exact replicas made in cardboard on a pedestal, he draws the attention to these small but very particular details, which finally characterize society. He shows creative solutions of people from poorer countries to handle every day life, like the iron used as a pizza heater (Iron 2012) or the clock face written on the wall (Clock 2012). With humour and irony he shows also miss-­‐constructions, which have lost their actual purpose, like the exposed power line next to a light switch (Plug 2012).

Made in an unmistakable technique with recycled paper Hazem El Mestikawy's works are based on the principle of duality and range between positive and negative, between lightness and heaviness, between light and shadow. He transfers this ambiguity as well to the content level. Thus his works are not statements but rather questions related to current topics as well as general identity issues: Does it go forward or backward for Egypt after the fall of Mubarak (11.02.2011, White Cairo 2011)? How constant or rather how transitory is freedom (Alhoriya Panel 2, Vienna 2012)? Is the Egyptian identity more defined by the Arabic or Egyptian heritage (Chamber)?

Meanwhile Hazem El Mestikawy's formal language is geometrical and sober Khaled Hafez's works are characterized by a colourful, nearly expressive style. It is not duality which dominates Hafez's work, but the melting of apparently incompatible things. Ancient Egyptian divinities are united with modern western icons. For his works he choses comic heroes or fashion magazine beauties. In a playful way he removes the gap between old and new world, between East and West, between high and trivial culture, creating a mirror from the society, which according to him is situated in a metamorphosis stadium.

Image: © Khaled Hafez, AB Gallery