Events24 November 2015

From successful psychiatrist in the U.S. to inspired painter in Bordighera

The first collection of paintings created in Italy - shown in a Vernissage on Thursday 26th November - captures the infinitely inspiring light and character that Mohamed El-Sabaawi found in his new home.

Credits: Anna Fill

Credits: Anna Fill

As artists, writers, poets, and travelers have known for years the experience of Italy expands one's perspectives.

Painter Mohamed El-Sabaawi moved from Washington D.C. three years ago, leaving behind a very successful career as a psychiatrist, to seek his broadening of vision and perception. He began his art studies as a young man in Alexandria, Egypt, with Seif Wanly, who introduced modern art to Egypt. Due to family pressure, he relinquished the study of fine arts which he has revived in the last 10 years studying with noted painters in the American arts colony of Asheville, North Carolina. After practicing psychiatry for more than 30 years in the US, today Mohamed El-Sabaawi works from a studio and gallery space at Via Dritta 16/20 in the old town of Bordighera, choosing this town to cultivate his art and creativity.

Mohamed’s first collection of paintings created in Italy - shown in a Vernissage on Thursday 26th November - captures the light and character he finds infinitely inspiring in his new home. His decades in psychiatry attuned his senses to emotional nuance; this aptitude finds new expression in his art, in the way he identifies and interprets on canvas the essence of his subjects. The juxtaposition of his paintings created in Italy and those painted in the U.S. reveals an unmistakable widening of artistic scope and sweep. Inspired by Rembrandt and Van Gogh, his work, in general, has been characterized as emotionally resonant, uniting the truth of a realistic representation with psychological and spiritual intuition.

Vernissage: Thursday 26th November, from 6.30 pm

Gallery: Studio d'Arte, Via Dritta 16/20, Bordighera Alta


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