B.1989
Esraa Elfeky is an Egyptian multimedia artist who works with video, sculpture, drawing, sound, and installation. Her work unearths the complex relationships that exist between the natural world, the body, time, and the urban environment. For the past six years, Elfeky has navigated themes such as the apocalypse, decay, and resurrection as an ongoing exploration of her native country. The often overlooked landscape of the desert specifically, becomes a site for imagination, solitude, storytelling, and reflection on both historical and political events.
Elfeky is the recipient of grants and awards such as the special mention award of the 5th GABES CINEMA Festival, the Wijhat travel grant- El Mawred, Gypsum bursaries, Pro Helvetia artist residency, the Warehouse421 production grant, the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts grant in Salzburg 2020, and the 25th Youth Salon Prize for Installation Art at Cairo’s Opera House. Her work has been exhibited worldwide at venues such as W139/Netherlands, 9th Biennale Gherdeina/Italy, Kunstverein Hamburg/Germany. GABES CINEMA FEN festival/Tunisia, Mena Film festival/Canada, MMAG Foundation/Jordan, Warehouse421/UAE, Townhouse Gallery/ Egypt.
EDUCATION
2018-19, MASS Alexandria Independent Study Program for Contemporary Arts, Alexandria, Egypt
2011, Bachelor of Arts with High Honors, Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University, Cairo
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025, Upcoming Solo Exhibition, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo, Egypt
2022, When Worlds Evaporate, The Other Room, Cairo, Egypt
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND SCREENINGS
2024, Group Exhibition at CBK Zuidoost, Netherlands (Upcoming, December)
2024, Thinking Like Mountain, GAMEC Museum, Bergamo, Italy (Upcoming, October)
2024, The Parliament of Marmots, Biennale Gherdeina, Italy
2024, Outside the Soup, W139, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2024, Film Screening ARQUIVO & PESQUISA: Relatos Sagrados, Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, Portugal
2024, Film Screening, MENA Film Festival, Vancouver, Canada
2023, Whisper for Return, Takhshina Gallery, Goethe Institute, Cairo, Egypt
2023, Summer Open Studio, La Becque Résidence d’artistes, Vevay, Switzerland
2023, Film Screening, Kunstverein Hamburg, Germany
2023, Film Screening, Zawya Cinema Shorts, Cairo, Egypt
2023, Film Screening, GABES CINEMA FEN Festival 2023, Gabes, Tunisia
2023, Film Screening, Arab Media Lab Film Premiere, Marrakesh, Morocco
2023, Film Screening, Switchboard Project, Cairo, Egypt
2022, Where Do We Go From Here? Possible Futures, Bir Lahjar, Tunis
2022, Dy-Sync 17, CIC, Cairo, Egypt
2021, 10th Cairo Video Festival, Tahrir Culture Center
2021, Recto & Verso, Curated by Katherine Behar
2021, Alternative Skies, Institut Français d'Égypte, Alexandria
2021, Roznama 8 Exhibition, CIC, Cairo, Egypt
2021, Egypt International Art Fair, Dusit Thani Lakeview, Cairo
2020, Film Screening, Papatunga Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2020, Quarantined, Virtual Exhibition
2020, No ISBN, MMAG Foundation, Amman, Jordan
2019, MASS Alexandria End-of-Year Exhibition, Alexandria, Egypt
2019, 12th Bamako Encounters - African Biennale of Photography, Bamako, Mali
2019, No ISBN, Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi, UAE
2019, The 29th Letter of the Alphabet, Art D’Égypte, Cairo, Egypt
2019, No ISBN, Beirut Art Centre, Lebanon
2019, Roznama 7, Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt
RESIDENCIES, GRANTS AND PRIZES
2024, Second Round Recipient of Wijhat Travel Grant, El Mawred
2024, Artist Residency in CARAVANE OUADANE, Mauritania
2024, Artist Residency at CBK Zuidoost, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2023, Special Mention Award for Short Films, 5th Edition of Gabes Cinema Fen, Gabes, Tunisia
2023, Gypsum Bursaries - Pilot Program, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo
2023, Artists in Residency Grant, Pro Helvetia at La Becque (Swiss Arts Council)
2021, Artists Fellowship with Rana Elnemr, funded by Mophradat (3-month assistantship program)
2020, Warehouse421 Project Revival Fund, UAE
2020, Grant for Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts
2020, Artist Residency, The Lab at Darat Al Funun, Amman, Jordan (Postponed)
2016, 25th Youth Salon Prize for Installation Art, Cairo Opera House
2016, Artist Residency, The Centre for Creative Activities, Ustka, Poland
2016, Egyptian Ministry of Culture Travel Grant
2015, North and South Grant and Residency, Bibliotheca Alexandrina
TALKS
2024, Paper and Performance, CIC, Cairo, Egypt (Upcoming)
2023, Moderated Art and the Anthropocene, Roznama 9 Parallel Program, Tahrir Culture Center, AUC, Cairo, Egypt
2023, Alternative Art Education Programs: MASS ALEX - STUDIO KHANA - ROZNAMA STUDIO, Ard Institution
2020, Quarantined Talk, Moderated by Nour El Safoury
2016, Roznama 5 Talk, Cairo, Egypt
WORKSHOPS
2023, Extended Ecologies, Medrar (Cairo) and Critical Media Lab (Basel)
2021, Beyond the “New-Norm”, Filmmaking and Media Arts Masterclass, Arab Media Lab, Morocco
2021, Creative Impact Lab Cairo, Zero1 Lab, Cairo
2019, Politics of Listening, Sound Workshop, Townhouse Gallery, Cairo
2018, Roznama Studio Program, Medrar for Contemporary Art in collaboration with D-CAF
2017, Embroidery in Colors, Soma Art, Cairo, Egypt
2012, Bearing Witness, Medrar for Contemporary Art, Cairo, Egypt
2010, Open Lab Egypt, Rooftop Studio (now Medrar)
2007-09, Media Art Workshop-Video Art, Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University
SELECTED PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS
2024, Outside the Soup: An Exploration of Imagination, Solidarity, and Otherwise World-making at W139, Metropolis m, by Thierno Deme
2024, Animals in the Clouds: Exploring Deep-Time Landscape & Art of the Biennale Gherdëina, recessed.space, by Will Jennings
2024, The Parliament of Marmots, Les Nouveaux Riches, by Natassa Philimonos
2024, Biennale Gherdeina in South Tyrol, In the Kingdom of the Marmots, Monopol, by Lisa-Marie Berndt
2023, Brève Suisse, by Camille Philippon
2023, I’ve Known Rivers: A Re-imagination of Short Film, Now is Culture, by Shahd
2021, Roznama 8: Art at the End of the World, by Ismail Fayed, Mada Masr