Kreëmart x Youssef Nabil
Youssef Nabil began his photography career in 1992 by staging tableaux in which his friends acted out melodramas recalling film stills from the golden age of Egyptian cinema. Later in the 1990s, while working as a photographers' assistant in prominent studios in New York and Paris, he began photographing artists and friends, producing both formal portraits as well as placing his subjects in the realms of dreams and sleep, on the edge of consciousness and far from their public personas. On his return to Egypt in 1999 he further developed his unique approach to hand painted photography, with portraits of writers, singers and film stars of the Arab world. In recent years, especially since settling in Paris and New York, he has started producing self-portraits that reflect his dislocated life away from Egypt. In these liminal scenes he lingers between worldly realities and serene dreams, loneliness and fame, tinged with sex and death.
Nabil's work has been presented on numerous solo and group exhibitions at venues including the British Museum, London, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City, North Carolina Museum of Art, North Carolina, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, …
Youssef Nabil began his photography career in 1992 by staging tableaux in which his friends acted out melodramas recalling film stills from the golden age of Egyptian cinema. Later in the 1990s, while working as a photographers' assistant in prominent studios in New York and Paris, he began photographing artists and friends, producing both formal portraits as well as placing his subjects in the realms of dreams and sleep, on the edge of consciousness and far from their public personas. On his return to Egypt in 1999 he further developed his unique approach to hand painted photography, with portraits of writers, singers and film stars of the Arab world. In recent years, especially since settling in Paris and New York, he has started producing self-portraits that reflect his dislocated life away from Egypt. In these liminal scenes he lingers between worldly realities and serene dreams, loneliness and fame, tinged with sex and death.
Nabil's work has been presented on numerous solo and group exhibitions at venues including the British Museum, London, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City, North Carolina Museum of Art, North Carolina, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Centre de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla, Aperture Foundation, New York and La Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. Three monographs have been published on Nabil's work—Sleep in My Arms (Autograph ABP and Michael Stevenson, 2007), I Won't let you die (Hatje Cantz, 2008) and Youssef Nabil (Flammarion, 2013). In 2010 Youssef Nabil exhibited his first short film You Never Left, with actors Fanny Ardant and Tahar Rahim.
Kreëmart is an artistic entity that collaborates with artists, taking them out of their typical creative process by introducing them to the medium of dessert. Unrestricted, they are partnered with the best pastry Chefs to produce their own conception. Kreëmart is based in New York.
Courtesy of the Artist and Kreëmart
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami
The Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York,
La Maison Européenne de La photographie, Paris
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LA
The British Museum, London, England
The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England
The Guggenheim Museum, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E
Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar
Sindika Dokolo Foundation, Luanda, Angola
Savannah College of Art & Design, GA, U.S.A
Centro De La Imagen, Mexico City, Mexico
Barjeel Art Foundation, U.A.E
Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Greece
