b. Cairo, 1969 · Painter
Ibrahim
El Dessouki
Oil on canvas as a slow, layered record of Egyptian light — architecture, memory and the emotional texture of place. Represented by Hafez Gallery.
01 — Biography
A painter's life
Born in Cairo in 1969, Ibrahim El Dessouki taught painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Cairo from 1992 to 2017, when he became a full-time painter. He grew up in a family of painters, translators and Egyptologists — a diverse inheritance that runs through his work.
He holds a Master's Degree (1997) titled The School of London and British Painting since 1945, and a PhD (2003), Dynamics in Painting. His practice moves between densely layered oils, scratched surfaces and flat, quiet spaces, holding a hidden perspective between colour and composition.
Works are held in the collections of the Egyptian Museum of Modern Art, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Al-Ahram Press Organisation, the Ramzi Dalloul Art Foundation, the Arab Museum of Contemporary Art (Qatar), Dar Al Funoon and the Saudi Ministry of Culture.
02 — Artist Statement
“Each canvas becomes a space where form and feeling intertwine, capturing not what is seen, but what is remembered.”
El Dessouki's work grows out of a constant dialogue between memory, architecture and the emotional texture of place. Paintings are built from traces — fragments of streets, light and moments that quietly linger in mind.
Using oil on canvas, he layers, scratches and rebuilds colour in a process that mirrors the way memory itself unfolds: fragile, elusive and yet profoundly persistent. Light becomes both subject and metaphor; time is held, briefly, suspended.
03 — Selected Works
Paintings, 2015 – 2025
The Cotton Flower
Oil on canvas · 30 × 37 cm
The Olive Tree 1
Oil on clear primed canvas · 150 × 200 cm
Om Khalthom
Oil on canvas · 250 × 150 cm
Private Collection
Doors and False Doors 1
Oil and oil bars on canvas · 185 × 100 cm
Cactus 3
Oil and oil bars on clear canvas · 110 × 235 cm
Dar Al Funoon
Landscape 9
Oil on canvas · 95 × 140 cm
Department of Culture & Tourism, UAE
Doors and False Doors
Oil on canvas · 185 × 120 cm
Om Khalthom
Oil and oil bars on canvas · 150 × 305 cm
Wadi El Natroon 5
Sepia and pastel on paper · 71 × 99 cm
Cactus 1
Oil and oil bars on clear canvas · 110 × 105 cm
Columns 6
Oil and oil bars on canvas · 42.5 × 30 cm
Doors and False Doors 4
Oil on canvas · 185 × 110 cm
Landscape 11
Oil on canvas · 95 × 140 cm
Landscape 12
Oil on canvas · 95 × 140 cm
Om Khalthom
Oil and oil bars on canvas · 160 × 345 cm
04 — Selected Exhibitions
1992 – 2025
- 2025
- Frieze London — Hafez Gallery, London
- Art Dubai — Hafez Gallery, Dubai
- 2024
- Eye of the Collector — Hafez Gallery, London
- 2023
- Dubai Art Fair — Hafez Gallery, Dubai
- As I Am — Misr Gallery, Cairo
- 2022
- 154 Art Fair — Hafez Gallery, New York
- Abu Dhabi Art Fair — Hafez Gallery
- Diriyah Biennale Foundation, Jeddah
- 2020
- Eternal Light — Downtown Cairo, Art D'Egypte
- 154 Art Fair — Hafez Gallery, New York
- 2019
- The Excellence Prize of the Egyptian State in Arts
- Reimagined Narratives — Beit El Sehemi, Cairo
- Start Art Fair — Hafez Gallery, London
- 2016
- Volta New York — Hafez Gallery
- India Art Fair — Hafez Gallery, New Delhi
- Art Stage — Hafez Gallery, Singapore
- 2015
- Start Saatchi Gallery — Hafez Gallery, London
- Art London — Hafez Gallery
- 2012
- Solo Exhibition — Boushehri Art Gallery, Kuwait
- Le Corps Découvert — Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
- 2008
- Trilogy of the Mediterranean — Palace of Arts, Marseille
- Om Khalthoum — Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
- 2006
- 10th Cairo International Biennale
A complete CV is available on request.