Fürther Nachrichten, 27.04.1999, REGINA URBAN

Between magic and modernity

Exhibition of contemporary painting from Egypt gives insight into a fascinating world of pictures

In Fürth are currently in three locations modern paintings from Egypt showcased. This splendid display is shown on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the German Egyptian Association (as reported), which granted every five years to celebrate its founding date also an insight into the contemporary artistic creativity in Egypt.

In the future the artworks what is for many out of a foreign culture area can be seen more often. For Ursula Schernig, who organised the exhibition, has re-opened her gallery on Laubenweg 41 and  reserved it exclusively for the future to the "art of the Nile Valley". After the Fürth-based woman lived almost ten years with her family in Cairo, she  became an intimate connoisseur of Egyptian, Sudanese and Nubian art. Her sense of quality shows the current selection of works. What is to see until 3 June on Laubenweg, in the theatre and  the castle, is exquisite.



Poetry of everyday life

Very different are, much more "Egyptian" and specifically symbolic, the works of Eveline Ashamalla that are shown in the theatre. Here the human, animal and plant life, age and youth undergoes a surreal connection. Her paintings are populated with hermaphrodites. Fine lines surround the figures, what makes them together with the caricatural deformation somehow naive and comic-like.

Here are her pictures, for which she preferably uses ink or oil pastels, full of ancient Egyptian symbolism, what Eveline Ashamalla again with her art wants to recall. Almost all her figures have hands with only four fingers - in Egypt a notice that these beings are from another world. Her painting titled "Homunculus", which was awarded with the international "Faust-prize", is an ambiguous creature in every way - enigmatic, fascinating and repulsive at the same time. 



On the other hand in a completely different world of images carry off the works by self-taught Sayed Amin Fayed in the Burgfarrnbach Castle. With its distinctive handwriting he creates images like carved out of stone. A delicate colour scheme gives the figures seemingly marble like materiality. Around them like scarification revolve colour shadings and draw the eye on the subject, which similar to Eveline Ashamalla often hermaphroditic and full of symbolism, but especially has here magical significance.

Almost always, the subjects appear doubled. Result of the reflexion is the image symmetry that is typical of the traditional Egyptian art. It is a fantastic world of images, which tells about the enormous variety of life and its myths.