El Zamzami’s art is imbued with a supremely cultured aesthetic quality reminiscent of the great masters of the European expressionist school and can be classified as art brut or ‘outsider art.’
Ashraf El Zamzami was a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Minya, and he fast made a name for himself in the local art scene in the mid-1990s with his palpably naive yet refined brand of expressionism that exudes a distinct sophistication despite being executed in a comparatively simple and modest compositional style. El Zamzami has garnered acclaim in his native Egypt and abroad for his art’s refreshing purity and strikingly innocent yet substantive nature, and after having featured with Safarkhan at several stages in the 1990s, he took a lengthy hiatus from art before returning to the fold most recently in his exhibitions with Safarkhan in 2019 and 2020.
Since his protracted hiatus from painting, El Zamzami has produced arguably some of the best work of his career, in a class of its own amongst contemporary Egyptian art, constituting a powerful creative reawakening, and earning him the distinction of Safarkhan founder Sherwet Shafei’s claim that he is Egypt’s greatest contemporary talent. El Zamzami’s art is imbued with a supremely cultured aesthetic quality reminiscent of the great masters of the European expressionist school and can be classified as art brut or ‘outsider art.’
The artist’s truly original style of expressionism is what makes his work so special, and it is foremost the product of the deepest introspection and introversion that can only be attained in the true solitude of one’s mind and body. El Zamzami demonstrates a more advanced and nuanced use of color pigmentation, one that is intense, cheerful, bright and optimistic. He also explores themes of abstract experimentation, specifically with his interpretation of the human form, as well as an exploration of the complex relationship between man and animal which he portrays through his depictions of both docile and threatening imaginary creatures.