Medhat Shafik (Egyptian, 1956)La ReginaHand-coloured terracotta18 cm

Medhat Shafik (Egyptian, 1956)La ReginaHand-coloured terracotta18 cm
Medhat Shafik is an Egyptian artist. He was born in El Badari in 1956 and since 1976 he has been living and working in Italy.His unique style earned him the Golden Lion for Nations at the 1995 Venice Biennale, in which he starred together with two other Egyptian artists. He was also awarded the Nile Grand Prix at the 2003 IX International Biennale in Cairo and the first prize at the Cairo Biennale in 2012 along with other important accolades. Shafik has also been mentioned in a major essay entitled ‘Modern Egyptian Art’ by Salwa Mikdadi, which is included in the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In his practice, the artist experiments with a large number of techniques and materials, preferring natural ones, such as pieces of wood and twigs, and those discarded by the contemporary consumer society. Shafik’s works are featured in some notables collections, among which: Santa Maria della Scala in Siena and Museo Riso in Palermo, the latter having acquired one of his artwork currently on display at the airport of Palermo. “La Regina” is made using hand-coloured terracotta and shows another important aspect in Shafik’s visual world, the one related to his Egyptian and by extension Middle Eastern origins. Signed.