His semi-futurist abstract painting is not tied to any specific location or culture and is instead universal in its appeal and composition, drawing inspiration from significant literary and artistic figures including the Russian author Vladimir Nabokov and African-American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Ahmed Gaafary is a graduate of painting and sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Helwan University in 2005 and began his career in art shortly thereafter. His initial encounter with art was fostered from his early youth, where he became exposed to a variety of Egyptian and foreign art through his family business, a reputable framers. Gaafary’s involvement in art has seen him produce not only his characteristically original abstract paintings, but also with forays into installation and video art, which he has been fond of since his schooling.
Gaafary has participated in more than ninety international and national group exhibitions, including being a regular fixture at the Cairo Youth Salon (Salon El Shabab) from 2008 to 2015 and Agenda exhibitions from 2009 to 2013. He has also featured abroad at the Umm Kulthum exhibition in Morocco (2015), NordArt in Germany (2015), Oslo Short Film Festival, TRIO Biennale and Youth Biennale in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2017), and his participation in the ‘Egyptian Environment Vocabulary’ at the Egyptian Academy of Arts in Rome (2018). Gaafary held seven solo exhibitions across Egypt, including at the Cairo Opera House’s Palace of Arts (2016), the ‘Made in Egypt’ exposition at Saad Zaghloul Cultural Center (2012), and ‘The Way to Infinity’ at Gezira Arts Center (2012), before becoming a Safarkhan resident artist with his debut exhibition in 2020.
Gaafary has also participated in various art projects, such as the ‘North and South’ exhibition by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina organized by the European Union (2015) and the International Mediterranean Symposium in Alexandria (2010). His semi-futurist abstract painting is not tied to any specific location or culture and is instead universal in its appeal and composition, drawing inspiration from significant literary and artistic figures including the Russian author Vladimir Nabokov and African-American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, as well as the artist’s own preoccupation with concepts such as communication and the relationship between man and machine.