Elena Soliman

Elena Soliman works at the intersection of painting, historical research and cultural memory. Her practice is grounded in the direct study of Ancient Egyptian material culture — tombs, reliefs, statues, astronomical records — which she translates into a contemporary visual language through painting, layered texture and incised surface.

Her principal series, Echoes of Displaced Antiquities, addresses one of the defining questions of contemporary cultural discourse: what happens to a civilisation when its sacred objects are physically removed from the places they were made for? Structured around five conceptual chapters — Face, Voice, Body, Place, Memory — the series moves through works each centred on a specific displaced artefact now held in foreign collections. It is conceived not as accusation but as cultural witness: a sustained painted argument for the inseparability of object and origin.

Alongside this central series, Elena Soliman’s practice encompasses several interconnected bodies of work. The Strata series approaches the Nile not as landscape but as a symbolic axis — a living record of Egyptian civilisation, natural cycles and deep time, and a direct visual counterpart to the themes of origin and displacement explored in...

• Art School No. 1, Omsk, Russia — foundations of drawing and painting (1990–1995)
• State Diploma in Art Studio Teaching, Russia
• Micromosaic technique — studied under Dr. Saad Romani, Egyptian-born mosaicist, Cairo
• Contemporary painting techniques — online professional programmes, including coursework from US-based art education platforms
• Ongoing independent study of Egyptology: primary academic literature, university-level texts, lectures by Egyptologist Victor Solkin, and the published research and books of Dr. Zahi Hawass — whose scholarship on displaced Egyptian heritage forms a direct intellectual foundation for the Echoes of Displaced Antiquities series
• Field research at Saqqara necropolis and direct study of collections at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo — conducted prior to each new body of work
• Founder and principal instructor, Sharm Art Studio, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt — since 2014

Solo Exhibitions

• 2023 — Roots, Russian Cultural Centre, Cairo, Egypt

Selected Group Exhibitions & Awards

• 2025 — KHUTAWAT — Arabian Art Exhibition, Bhavan Gallery, London, UK
• 2025 — Art Reception, Shams Art Space, Cairo, Egypt
• 2024 — Venice International Art Fair, Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello, Venice, Italy
• 2024 — Garden on the Nile, Russian Cultural Centre, Cairo, Egypt
• 2024 — The Night of the Arts, Helsinki, Finland
• 2024 — Art Exhibition, Prince Taz Palace, Cairo, Egypt — First Prize, awarded by Dr. Mustafa El-Waziri
• 2024 — تراثنا (Our Heritage), Citadel of Saladin, Cairo, Egypt — award presented by Dr. Zahi Hawass
• 2024 — Wgood Art Forum, Complex of Religions, Coptic Museum Square, Cairo — Second Prize, awarded by Senator Dr. Rama Galal
• 2023 — Kayan, Beit Al-Suhaimi, Al-Moez Street, Cairo, Egypt — Second Prize, awarded by Major General Tarek Mahdy
• 2023 — Art Symposium, Tunisia