Mohammed Abla

Born Belqas Mansoura, Egypt, 1953

Abla graduated in 1977 from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria and later studied in Zurich at the Bauhaus Oriental School. He held his first solo exhibition in 1977 at the Spanish Cultural Center in Cairo, and in 1979 his first solo exhibition abroad was in Walsrode, Germany. In the early 1980s he studied and specialized in graphics in both Switzerland and Austria. Abla was one of several artists invited by the United States government to tour a number of American cities. He is the recipient of various awards, including the Grand Biennial Prize, 1997, and he has participated in many exhibitions in Egypt and Europe. Abla's current working space is on an island in the Nile, which provides a quiet oasis and major source of inspiration: the Nile and the environment are prevailing themes in Abla's art, whether graphics, installation or oil paintings.