IZABELA UCHMAN
Izabela Uchman Luxor Art Gallery is so pleased to present the gorgeous and ingenious calligraphic-inspired artworks of Izabela Uchman. The study of Islamic calligraphy is its own remarkable history, and Arabic text has never been mere print on a page. Letters and words unravel, come to life, and are liberated into the world like ribbons in the wind. And yet the messages remain. Taking inspiration from artwork made from passages in the Quran and other traditions, Izabela brings to life quotes and poems that are both personal to her and deeply sentimental, spinning the text into imagery to recreate the meanings at the heart of the words. Her feminine identity, and her relationship with mixed cultures and breaking borders creates messages for all humanity and are simply timeless. —D.N.
Born in Warsaw, Izabela Maria Uchman is a Cairo-based Polish Artist and conservator of fine arts.
In 2002 she earned master’s degree with distinction from Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and started working there as an assistant at the Department of Conservation and Restoration of Painting and Polychrome Sculpture. Her diploma was rewarded as the best Master Project at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and got Special Distinction of The Art Historians Society.
Izabela received twice The Reward of Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw for distinguish work.
Since 1999 she has been involved in preservation of the Ancient Egyptian heritage collaborating as an conservation expert with the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw, Ministry of Antiquities of Egypt, the Grand Egyptian Museum, Japan International Cooperation Agency, and Waseda University in Tokyo.
She has been participated in many different projects in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, the most significant among them is Conservation and Restoration of Hatshepsut Temple and Khufu Second Boat Project.
Izabela Uchman is very fascinated with Arabic language and calligraphy, which became main tool of her artistic expression. She developed her linguistic skills at Warsaw University and Polish - Arabic Friendship Society. She then broadened her knowledge through working as a lecturer at the Linguistic Institute Al- Alsun of the Ain Shams University in Cairo.
Artist has been cooperating with culture institutions and private collectors exploring the unlimited capabilities of the art of written sign. She created her own type of artwork - a literary picture, which transforms selected texts into the unique visual figures composed of the Arabic script. Izabela named her art “Letterality” because her main goal is to create the special visual reality based on the original forms of letters, where the figure of the sign and its meaning coexist in harmony. Artist enriched her style with with hieroglyphics following her passion to the ancient Egyptian art.
Izabela Uchman’s pictures reveal her interest in timeless spiritual values and culture diversity. She concentrates on conscious existence as an essential basis of relations. Her works refer to the legacy of the ancient Mediterranean cultures - the important base of the universal qualities. She explores relation between individual and cultural heritage, which encloses not only inspiring diversity revealed in many different ideas, but also common principles and collective achievements of human knowledge and experience. Uchman tries to discover the new aspects of “identity”, “tradition”, “religious and cultural affiliation” creating artistic platform for a intercultural dialog.
