Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Cairo Art Blog

PR Guru Yasmine Allam has created a powerful new platform for Egypt's emerging artists. The non-profit Cairo Art Blog is enlightening and exciting...

Staff Writer

Egypt's pseudo-intellectuals might like the idea of art and going to art galleries, they may have weighty art tomes sprawled across their expensive coffee tables. But so few actually buy art or submerse themselves in the ideologies and inspiring nature of Egypt's creative scene.

In a bid to educate, encourage and inspire, a band of Cairenes have been working hard to shine a deserved light on the Egyptian art scene, and show the world that we're much better with a brush in our hands than a Molotov. Just a few recent examples we've covered include online local art magazine Zambalita, the curated street-art book Walls of Freedom and online art store Arts-Mart.

And now another particularly exciting platform has quite literally just popped up and is promising to be the go to place for an intrinsic insight into local artists and what they're up to...

www.CairoArtBlog.com - the baby of PR guru and main D-Caf Art Festival cog Yasmine Allam - is dedicated to covering younger, emerging visual artists in Egypt (usually under 40 years-old). "The blog is a non-profit platform that invites rising young talents to showcase their works and tell their stories exactly how they want them to be told," she says. "I then promote the blog to my contacts around the world in the hope of generating some international awareness around Egypt's emerging artists who do not currently receive the international exposure they so richly deserve." The blog is not affiliated to any gallery and does not take any money from the artists featured. "This really is a labour of love and has been a long-term dream," she adds.

The website has a slick design and it's easy to navigate through the different editorials, most of which include rather enlightening content on incredible budding artists few may have heard of. Recent stand-outs include Enas Elsadiek, an Egyptian artist who creates bio art, using algae, fungus and bacteria as a metaphor for change and decay and local artist Wael Darwish who is is exhibiting at the Venice Biennale 2013 (his piece 'Dissapearance' featured above).

We're officially hooked... check it out for yourselves!