El Marsam: Modern and Contemporary Art from Egypt opens September 18, 2026 at the Middle East Institute Art Gallery, presenting roughly 45 works across media and generations to U.S. audiences.
Curated by Cairo-born Heba El Kayal, El Marsam gathers about 45 works—painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, collage—spanning nearly a century of Egyptian modern and contemporary practice.
Artists on view include mid-20th-century figures like Abdel Hadi El Gazzar and Inji Efflatoun alongside contemporary practitioners such as Youssef Nabil and Sherine Guirguis.
# What the exhibition is
# Who organized it The show is curated by Heba El Kayal, a Cairo-born curator. She chose the title El Marsam, the Arabic word for "studio," to signal a shift in language and artistic identity: marsam has increasingly replaced the French atelier in Egypt, a change El Kayal connects to the evolution of Egyptian art.
# Why the exhibition matters El Marsam is among the first gallery exhibitions in the United States devoted exclusively to modern and contemporary Egyptian art. Its stated aim is to present Egyptian artists as central actors in their own artistic history rather than as footnotes to European or American modernism.
El Kayal framed the project as putting "Egyptian artists at the center of their own artistic history," and the curatorial approach places multiple generations side by side to reveal continuities and divergences in topics such as identity, politics, memory and belonging.
# What you'll see Expect a cross-generational conversation. The exhibition pairs pioneering modernists with contemporary artists to show how certain questions persist and how others shift over time. Named artists in the show include:
# Programming and events The exhibition opens with an invitation-only VIP event on September 17 that will include a curator's talk and guided tours attended by diplomats, government officials and art-world leaders. Over the fall run the gallery will host talks and panel discussions examining intersections of art, heritage and geopolitics in Egypt.
# Practical details
# How the exhibition positions Egyptian art El Marsam resists framing Egyptian modern and contemporary art as derivative. The curator and participating artists present a narrative that traces how international movements and local traditions interacted in Egypt, while centering Egyptian artists' own choices and concerns. The side-by-side placement of generations is meant to reveal "throughlines"—recurring questions and evolving answers—across decades.
Most of the 130 objects on view in "Treasures of the Pharaohs" are on loan from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, selected by former director Tarek al-Awadi before the show's earlier debut in Rome.
On 28 July 2026, Abu Dhabi announced that the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi would open its doors on 11 December. Twenty years after Frank Gehry first conceived it, the museum will open on Saadiyat Island, becoming the largest of the four sites in the global Guggenheim network. The announcement marks the culmination of a cultura
The museum’s director-general, noted that the stele was relocated and restored as part of the museum’s new display plan. It now stands between two other stelae depicting Ramses II.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA—CBS News reports that the FBI has returned 48 artifacts to Egypt. The […] The post U.S. Returns Artifacts to Egypt appeared first on Archaeology Magazine .
At the intersection of art and social responsibility, Art With A Heart will unite a community of artists from September 20–22 in support of a cause that puts creativity at the heart of childhood. Presented by Bibliothek Art Gallery, founded and owned by Noha Barakat, in support of the community-based organization Alwan
Egypt and the UAE Emirate of Fujairah are moving ahead with a joint oil-storage venture at El Hamra as Cairo expands capacity and seeks to b...
Loading more related stories...
Open the app view to save this story, compare related coverage, and continue from the same source.