Hazem El Mestikawy is an artist who addresses issues of a reductionist nature, shaped in a form of ‘neo-concretists’. Using cardboard sheets and various sorts of papers to construct and form his objects and sculptural compositions. The credo of the artworks is in the clarity and sensuousness of reductionist art, held within a wealth of timeless ideas and investigation, which continually yields new fascinating findings.
Today, more than ever, El Mestikawy’s art production focuses on reduction, geometry, systems, structures and the critical analysis of the framework conditions within which his art is generated or seen.
El Mestikawy employs hard edges, geometric abstractions to graphically delineate space, form, shape and color in his fervent yet exacting approach to making and staging art. He continues to cultivate the marriage of art in relation to architecture and design principals from his own perspective. In his working process, he continually looks back and recalls the notions of the geometrical and conceptual history of art and culture, renewing his established vocabulary with fresh information, ideas, forms and concepts.
The daily practice in his art making is based on a persistent duality: a pragmatic approach to the material and making of objects, coupled with a fascination for the geometrically charged associations and traces of concrete and minimal art embedded in objects.
“About SPACES” Systemic Objects and Issues of Reduction, is the first solo exhibition by the artist in Cairo since his last exhibition titled “9” in 2003. “About SPACES” follows the artists’ local and international participations in several group shows, museum acquisition and prizes in USA, Japan, Cuba, Bangladesh, Dubai and Europe, aside from his major exhibitions “Equal Spaces” in 2005 and “Alif Beh” in 2009 at Gallery Atrium ed Arte in Vienna, Austria.