CAIRO.- Long respected for her passionate engagement in the contemporary cultural and artistic dialogue and no less admired for the long arduous career she has individually shaped, Nazli Madkour presents an exuberant body of work that is testimony to an artist at the top of her game .

After a two-year introspective period, rigorously self-imposed studio discipline, continuous research, self-reflection and experimentation, she has emerged with a show that is solid and self-assured.

Her last solo exhibition was in 2014 and although seemingly, one might think she tackles the same subject matter of “foliage”, her technique and composition aver that her long creative process has reached a high note.

Thirty-seven works in mixed-media on canvas in varying sizes from 20 x 20 cm to 150 x 200 cm executed with bold, sweeping and vigorous brushstrokes that capture the essence and force of nature. She works directly on canvas with no preliminary studies or priming the “ground” with an overall base colour. The paint layers are thick, opaque evoking actual and natural textures.

There is light in every canvas; her use of lush viridian green, emerald, chrome and cobalt violet bring the feeling of overall brilliance and evoke the naturalistic illusion of Spring in bloom.

In some works she explores close tonal values and paler colours with no dark contrasts which flatten the pictorial plane while simultaneously enhancing the luminous appearance of the painted surface.

Punctuating the show are five (41 x 45 cm) individual portraits of women, a subliminal reminder of a subject the artist has tackled throughout her career, often reflecting on the role and place of women in patriarchal societies and in the realms of the art world.

Madkour is the author of “Women and Art in Egypt” published in Arabic in 1989 and later translated into English in 1993.

Not one to call attention to herself nor wallow in self-aggrandizing compliments, she has quietly and assiduously forged a solid personal artistic path over a period that spans more than three decades.

An artist’s life, not unlike that of a writer, can be a lonely one, often plagued by doubts and questions and certainly not immune to political and socio-economic upheavals like the ones that have ravaged the region in the last six years.

But Madkour has soldiered on, producing her finest work to date and refusing to wait out the vagaries of politics and speculative economics; she has reached a point where artist and Nature are in peaceful communion.

This is a show that equally reflects the mood of a nation; a burst of exuberance and determination following the turmoil of the Arab Spring, a show like no other because it is muscular with backbone and sparkle!

Nazli Madkour is an Egyptian-born self-taught artist. She holds a degree in Political Science from The American University in Cairo and has had more than thirty-five solo shows in Egypt and abroad spanning the continents of America, Europe and Asia.

She has illustrated the deluxe edition book of Egyptian Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz, “Arabian Days and Nights”, published by the Limited Editions Club in New York in 2005. The book and the original paintings were first exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington D.C before touring several countries.

She lives and works in Cairo, Egypt.

Maie Yanni is an independent artist, curator and art contributor . She qualified from The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and in the year 2000 took a sabbatical from medical practice in order to fully concentrate on her artistic career.

Nazli Madkour - Solo show currently showing at Picasso Gallery until 19 April 2017