Egypt's Celebrities attend Hossam Dirar, Maher Diab’s joint exhibition at Cairo's Townhouse Gallery

Cairo’s Townhouse Gallery hosted a joint exhibition by artists Maher Diab and Hossam Dirar, whose works explored the blurred lines between reality and fiction through non-visual effects.

 

 

 

A slew of actors and actresses, directors, designers, producers, artists, and VIPs attended the event, including Youssra, Hussein Fahmy, Amir Ramses, Shahinaz El-Akkad, Riham El-Adl, Karim Mekhtigian, Spain’s Ambassador in Cairo lvaro Iranzo Gutiérrez, Karim Kassem, and Sedky Sakhr.

 

 

 

The joint exhibition is running from March 1-6 at the Factory Space of the Townhouse Gallery, with Dirar's side of the event being titled 'Invisible' and Diab's being a second round of his first solo exhibition, 'Beyond Sleep and Wakefulness', which was held in November 2022.

 

 

Dirar uses his perception of what cannot be seen in this exhibition to embark on an indirect quest for the foundations of existence, drawing the invisible world from energy, waves, and vibrations, which combine to form principles and rules governing the meaning of existence.

 

 

The apparent actions and responses consist of the saved and gained energies, frequencies, and vibrations that represent the self and our environment. Everything in this world of forces that surrounds us is deemed "invisible," and yet it symbolizes the roots of existence.

 

 

Understanding these components has become a form of human communication for Dirar because they are essential for absorbing, assimilating, and addressing. Through this knowledge, he creates a new world of color and space interactions that represent the interferences of energy and waves.

 

 

As for the second round of Beyond Sleep and Wakefulness, Diab tries to erase the line between reality and imagination and shares with his audience his attempts to reach and explore the subconscious, raising questions about the source of energy that enables an artist to use visual symbolism to create new worlds.

 

 

 

Despite the fact that reality restricts us all within visible bounds and structures linked to the reality that surrounds us, we all have the ability to ascend to other worlds that surpass our mental abilities and sensibilities, breaking the limited boundaries of reality.

 

 

 

 

Last November, Diab inaugurated the first round of Beyond Sleep and Wakefulness at Cairo's renowned Zamalek Art Gallery, during which he exhibited 40 various works of art, including paintings and sculptures that were created using different materials, including foam, minerals, rocks, and oil colors. He expressed the blending of concepts, spiritual elements, and reality through them in an attempt to access and explore his subconscious.

 

 

About Hossam Dirar

 

 

Dirar is an interdisciplinary artist who was born in Egypt and now lives in Barcelona. He has a Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design from Helwan University's School of Applied Arts and a Master's degree in Sound Art from the University of Barcelona.

After releasing his first paintings in 2011, Dirar started traveling around Europe to discover new artistic realms, as well as to hold several exhibitions.

 

 

About Maher Diab

 

 

Diab is a Canadian Lebanese visual artist who excels in the use of color, texture, and material composition. Due to his continuous desire to stretch the limits of creativity in colors, materials, shape, and space, his artwork is difficult to classify as two-dimensional.

His unique style is characterized by the use of a sculptural approach to come up with creative designs, as well as the use of various materials to create multiple layers in his paintings, which represent the physical and mental conditions that the individual experiences on a daily basis. This is his third exhibition.