CAIRO WEST MAGAZINE FEATURE

Cover-Art Winner

Winner of the Cairo West Magazine Art Competition, Farah Wali shares her work with us, as we learn more about her art, her method, and her cover-winning artwork.

Born in 1995, Farah Wali exhibited artistic tendencies from a young age. Wali spent the first half of her life in the U. A. E, and upon moving to Egypt, began exploring her talents through several different art forms like dance, fashion design, and mixed media art.

Wali is mainly interested in the manipulation of everyday, recycled, materials; her art is based on weaving unconventional elements thereby producing striking and controversial pieces that nevertheless, always convey a personal message. Defying the obstacles presented to her by her young age, and the challenge of proving herself amidst the competitive and maturing Egyptian art scene, Farah still succeeded in presenting her work in the prestigious Youth Salon 2012 at the Cairo Opera House as the youngest artist of only 17.

Wali’ s work successfully marries traditional artistic technique with experimental methods and unconventional ideas. Wali credits her art education for her constant self-challenging. She studied things like Higher Level Art and Design while obtaining her International Baccalaureate, and took a vigorous summer course in Fashion Design at the renowned Polimoda University in Florence, Italy; alongside having a vested interest in drawing inspiration from artists on the fringe such as Scott Blake, Nick Gentry, and Zac Freeman.

Re-charge me 2011 Re-charging / top up cards and acrylics

The cover-winning artwork is called,‘ Care To Explain?’ and Wali dedicates it to her art mentor and teacher at the British International School, Peter Jenkinson, as well as to her sister, Ghada Wali.

Stop and Stare 2012 Video Cassettes, Mod Rock, newspaper, tape and acrylics

POP Code 2012 Acrylics, stencils and block printing ink