Artist Ketty Abdel-Malek exhibits her latest collection of mosaics
Mosaics are composed of hard, tough materials: stone and marble pieced together to form an abstract image that is surprisingly fluid and even gentle in some cases. “It’s music, it’s balance, it’s a weight of colors together, artist Ketty Abdel-Malak describes her latest exhibition of modern abstract mosaics at the Safar Khan Gallery.
Abdel-Malek is an elegant woman. Her hair was neatly pulled back in a bun, and she’s dressed gracefully. It’s difficult to imagine her attacking a piece of hard marble with a hammer, shattering it into smaller pieces.
“I enjoy the stone. When I get all these stones, and the color stones, it’s like I have lovely toys in front of me, the artist explains. Her enthusiasm is evident in the way she describes the various materials she uses for her mosaics: stone, glass – Moreno glass and effervescent glass from Italy – marble, gold leaf, and, on the rare occasion, plaster.
Mosaic is an art form that dates back some 4,000 years and was used primarily for domestic interior decoration throughout the ancient world. Magnificent mosaics were embedded into the floors of Roman villas across North Africa. In the late 4th century Christians featured wall and ceiling mosaics in basilicas. Islamic architecture incorporated elaborate geometric designs.
As a member of the International Association of Contemporary Mosaics, Abdel-Malek has helped advance mosaic art into the modern era. And as with most modern abstract art, her mosaics solicit the viewer’s involvement. With the use of vague shapes, color and form to represent an idea or a sense, Abdel-Malek’s work is more a study of color and shape to address a variety of themes: from motherhood to splashes of color, from urban roads to desert landscapes.
“The combination of colors is different, it’s more vibrant. It’s more moving, and more inviting, Sherwet Shafie, art dealer and owner of Safar Khan gallery, describes Abdel-Malek’s current exhibition. She refers to “Desert Winds, the mosaic hanging behind her on the wall, “It gives you the impression of exactly that – representing clearly [the artist’s] idea. The mosaic colors are almost monochrome, representing the shifting colors of the desert sands. Only a white circle of shards of reflective glass represents a luminous moon.
“[Mosaic is] textured, full of colors, it’s gay. I mean you cannot make from mosaic something very sad. You cannot describe human misery through a mosaic, Shafie explains.
Most people are not familiar with mosaic as an art medium; it is more commonly used commercially. Mosaic is not a simple, or even easy, form of artistic expression. Breaking the hard materials into smaller pieces is hard physical work. Piecing the mosaic together is time-consuming; Abdel-Malek spends, on average, one-and-a-half months finishing each piece. So why mosaics?
Abdel-Malek started her career as a sculptor, studying in Egypt. She held her first exhibition at the French Cultural Center in 1980. But she was fed up with terracotta, which she felt was “dull, and had no colors . I said, no. I want colors. A suggestion to take up painting didn’t tempt her. But, she recalls, when she was given pieces of colored glass, she tried it and loved it. Abdel-Malak threw herself into studying mosaics in Italy and Egypt, and almost 30 years later she’s still at it.
Abdel-Malek’s talent is evident; her mosaics are colorful and emotive. “Motherhood is a puzzle of roughly cut stones and marble, and yet the final outcome is a gentle manifestation of maternal love. The theme is arguably trite, but the result impressive in the way small shards of stone form an evocative expression of a mother enveloping her child in her arms, and the child confident in its security.
This is the artist’s second exhibition at Safar Khan. “She has attempted to go into an old media . but applying it now to a piece of art that can suit and fit in our new [more modern] houses, says Shafie.
Mosaics by Ketty Abdel-MalakSafar Khan Gallery6 Brazil St, Zamalek, Cairowww.safarkhan.com
