Employing contrasting styles in his painting and sculpture, ranging from still-life to semi-abstract, to his preferred methods of figurative and expressionist styles, is what has garnered Abla widespread acclaim as one of the country’s most celebrated living talents.
Mohamed Abla was born in northern Egypt’s Mansoura in 1953. There he spent his childhood and finished his schooling. In 1973 he moved to Alexandria to start a five-year art programme at the prestigious Faculty of Fine Arts. Upon graduation he moved to Cairo to complete his military conscription. Abla held his first solo exhibition at the Spanish Cultural Center in Cairo in 1977, and the following year he embarked on a seven-year journey across Europe, where he visited museums and cultural landmarks in Spain, France, Belgium and Germany. His talent as an artist was evident early on, and he held his first solo exhibition at the Hohmann Gallery in northern Germany. He later moved to Vienna to study graphic design and exhibited at the AAI Gallery, before continuing on to Zurich where he continued his studies and had a two-year experience in art therapy.
After the birth of his son he moved back to Egypt where he held numerous solo and group exhibitions across the nation’s capital. In 1994 he was awarded the Grand Prix in the Kuwait Biennale, and the same honors at the Alexandria Biennale of 1997. Abla, as one of Egypt’s most renowned living artists, has participated in several international events including the Havana Biennale, as well as group exhibitions at the Kunst Museum Bonn, Switzerland. In 2007, he founded The Fayoum Art Center, a cultural center in the village where he lives, for aspiring and established artists to meet, work and collaborate. In 2009 he established the first caricature museum in the Middle East, also in Fayoum.
Abla is one of Egypt’s greatest exports of contemporary art, with an international exposure that only a handful of Egyptian artists have enjoyed. His impressive versatility in tackling and exploring diverging themes, employing contrasting styles in his painting and sculpture, ranging from still-life to semi-abstract, to his preferred methods of figurative and expressionist styles, is what has garnered him widespread acclaim as one of the country’s most celebrated living talents. Abla has been one of Safarkhan’s marquee resident artists since 2016.