Aliaa Essam

Nostalgia - Painting, Acrylic on canvas

Aliaa Essam is an Egyptian-Spanish painter. Currently lives in Geneva. She started her art journey at a very early age. Spending hours watching her mother and grandmother drawing and painting, art came to her life on a natural way. Aliaa graduated with a degree of Fine Arts from the University of Helwan, Egypt, in 2001. She worked as a full-time painting at a professional level in Cairo, where she had the opportunity to show her paintings at individual and collective exhibitions, until her depart from Egypt in 2008. After five years working at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, a time where she never abandoned her artistic work, Aliaa decided to resume her career as a full-time painter in 2015. Since 2015, she has devoted herself to painting, showing a constant dedication to improve her skills as an artist, which has given her the necessary confidence to continue to develop herself professionally. ‘I consider myself an artist specialised on women and, as such, female bodies occupy an essential place on my compositions. My works, acrylic on canvas, has evolved as I’ve gained more experience. Painting came into my life through the women of my family, who have painted for generations. Maybe that’s the reason why the idea of ​​painting women in their routine came naturally. I’ve never had the intention of making the female body the centre of my artistic work, I like to paint the lives of ordinary women, not top-models whose proportions are perfectly symmetrical. I imagine them in their daily life, busy with their business or in moments of solitude, walking in the street, sitting on a sofa, having a coffee, reading…, but never with the intention of looking for something in particular. I love finding the beauty in the little things and expressing that beauty on a simple way. The contrasts of light and shadow highlight the image of an independent woman. I try to give her a central role on the painting, reaffirmed by the daily activity that she is practising on that particular image. I intend to show her as a strong person in her everyday life.’