Joint Italian-Egyptian Exhibition

13-23 May 2011. This joint Italian-Egyptian exhibition entitled Muse displays the paintings by Omar Galliani and Essam Maarouf. The exhibition is part of an extended strategy by the Chairman of the Plastic Arts Section at the Egyptian Culture Ministry Ashraf Rida to diversify the artistic products presented to the Egyptian people through the Ministry of Culture.

Galliani is an acclaimed and recognized Italian artist, who has participated in three Venice Biennales, as well as numerous international exhibitions including China. His style of portraiture combines realism with technical finesse, which seems to blur the line between reality and supernatural mindfulness. His works transmit the serenity of oriental meditation and mantra with western spirituality and iconography.

Galliani uses pencil, pastel and ink in his works, employing the same classic skills of chiaroscuro and sfumato as Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Tiziano and Michelangelo. Galliani's subjects are young women and young men.

Maarouf is an Egyptian artist, who studied painting in Cairo and later fine arts in Rome. He lives and works in Amsterdam since 1985. Maarouf is specialized in portraiture and is constantly inspired by his country of origin, Egypt.