Gypsum Gallery

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Gypsum Gallery

Gypsum is an international contemporary art gallery established in Cairo in 2013. Gypsum is founded by Aleya Hamza, an independent curator based in Cairo.

Gypsum Gallery is committed to presenting an international, cross-disciplinary program of solo and group exhibitions, publications, limited artist editions and occasional off-site interventions. Eight artists living and working between Alexandria, Amman, Basel, Beirut, Berlin, Cairo and Tehran are represented by the gallery including Doa Aly, Mahmoud Khaled, Maha Maamoun, Basim Magdy, Mona Marzouk

, Tamara Al-Samarraei , Setareh Shahbazi and Ala Younis. We are dedicated to forging longstanding relationships with artists, whose rigorous and singular art practice varies in medium, form and approach. Since completing her MA in History of Art at Goldsmiths College in 2001, she has lectured in contemporary art at the American University in Cairo, and worked as a curator at Townhouse Gallery and the Contemporary Image Collective in Cairo. Her projects and exhibitions have been featured internationally in Alexandria, Amsterdam Beirut, Berlin, Bonn, Budapest, Cairo, London, Odense and Rabat. She co-curated the third and fourth editions of PhotoCairo, and her most recent exhibition was on show at the Tate Modern in London in 2012/2013. Gypsum is based in a 1940’s converted residential apartment in the neighbourhood of Zamalek, Cairo. Official opening is on the 29th of October in 2013 with a solo show of recent work by Setarah Shahbazi.

17/06/2026

Day 2 of Art Basel 🤍❕

Don’t miss Hana El-Sagini’s solo presentation “Plot Twist” in the Statements sector at Booth M18.

Rather than affirming bronze’s traditional associations with monumentality, El-Sagini subdues the material’s authority. Muted grey patinas lend the works a restrained, almost bodily presence, suggesting age, fatigue, wisdom, and survival.

In doing so, she shifts bronze away from triumph and toward a quieter register of endurance. The work proposes a sculptural environment in which the loss is not final, and where life is continually capable of regenerating itself.

Hana El-Sagini Art Basel 🌟

Art Basel will run from 18-21 June 2026 (preview days 16 - 17 June) at Messe Basel.

Image. Installation view of “Plot Twist”, 2026, Bronze, 350 x 574 x 12 cm | photograph by Julian Blum

16/06/2026

NOW OPEN | Art Basel Statements - Booth M18

We are thrilled to be presenting the solo presentation “Plot Twist” by Hana El Sagini.

At the heart of the booth, a radiating installation unfolds through an expanding network of braids. Twisted, organic forms spread across the walls and rise from the floor, hovering between bodily and vegetal registers.

They may evoke hair, roots, branches, veins, or the nervous system. Their movement is uneven–something between living and dying: dense and dormant in some places, more active and proliferating in others, as strands converge, diverge, and generate new paths.

Hana El-Sagini Art Basel 🌟

Art Basel will run from 18-21 June 2026 (preview days 16 - 17 June) at Messe Basel.

Image. Installation view from Art Basel 2026 | photograph by Julian Blum

14/06/2026

OPENING TODAY | Taha Belal at Basel Social Club 🖇️🗓️

For Basel Social Club, Belal’s installation “Unfinished Business (Bonjour je suis en vacances en Espagne)” consists of carbon transfers onto receipts, magazine pages, and recycled paper. The transferred images are based on cropped gestures and closeups of hands sourced from newspapers, advertisements, and circulating media imagery: men in suits shaking hands, pointing at microphones, clapping.

Isolated through the transfer process, these gestures become fragmented signs of presentation, persuasion, and the choreography of power, thereby reflecting how images, authority, and communication circulate between business, media, and everyday life.

This year’s edition occupies a vacant office building near Basel SBB. Positioning the office as both subject and scenography, engages with evolving conditions of work, time, and production.

Basel Social Club 2026: Office, on view June 14–20 in Basel

Images by Roman Häbler and Lars-Ole Bastar .info

gypsumgallery

09/06/2026

🌟Swipe through a walk-through of Lara Baladi’s current solo show at the gallery, “Z for Zarafa”.

Baladi’s show considers the absurdity of diplomatic exchange as an expression of persuasion and power, unfolding through a new body of work spanning tapestry, photography, and sculptural installation.

Don’t miss her exhibition walkthrough this evening, 9 June, at 7pm.

“Z for Zarafa” will be on view until 23 September. The gallery is open Saturday to Wednesday from 12-8pm (closed Thursday and Friday).

–
lara 🌟

Images by Marc Onsi

03/06/2026

Looking back at the spectacular opening of “Z for Zarafa” last night. 🌟🦒🌟

Thank you to all who joined us to celebrate Lara Baladi’s show, which emerged from a laborious multi-year endeavor and through a wide network of collaborations.

We were thrilled to launch “The Anatomist,” a publication co-produced by Gypsum, co-edited by Farida Youssef and the artist, and launched on the occasion of the exhibition, now available for purchase at the gallery (more info coming soon).

A very special thanks to Hourig Mekhtigian (.o.u.r.i.g) for providing such thoughtful food and drink on the occasion of the opening and Florabel () for the beautiful flower arrangement in the belly of our very own Zarafa sculpture. 💐

And of course, a huge congratulations to Lara Baladi for an incredible show.

Z for Zarafa will be on view until 23 September. The gallery is open daily from 12-8pm (closed Thursday and Friday.

–
lara ❤️‍🔥

Images by Marc Onsi

01/06/2026

OPENING TOMORROW: “Z for Zarafa”, Lara Baladi’s first solo show at the gallery 🦒

Baladi’s show considers the absurdity of diplomatic exchange as an expression of persuasion and power, unfolding through a new body of work spanning tapestry, photography, and sculptural installation.

The exhibition emerges from a multi-year endeavor and through a wide network of collaborations, bringing together techniques and forms shaped by many hands: potters in Fayoum, blacksmiths in Imbaba, antiquaries in downtown Cairo, and embroiderers in Islamic Cairo, amongst others.

Opening reception: Tuesday, 2 June, 7-9 pm

2 June - 23 September 2026

–
lara 🌟

Image. Lara Baladi, La Belle Africaine, 2026, mixed media wall tapestry, photomontage of archival and AI-generated imagery printed on textile, painting, embroidery, felt-work, 224 x 152 cm

31/05/2026

3 days until the opening of Z FOR ZARAFA, Lara Baladi’s first solo show at the gallery 🦒

The show traces intertwined histories of migration, diplomatic exchange, and revolutions, emerging from “Anatomy of Revolution,” her monumental web-based ABC of global revolts.

In her sprawling alphabet, the letter Z stands for many words, including “Zarafa,” the giraffe gifted by Mohamed Ali to King Charles X of France in 1827.

For Baladi, however, Zarafa’s afterlife persists as both a diplomatic relic and a metaphor for displacement and forced migration.

Opening reception: Tuesday, 2 June, 7-9pm
2 June - 23 September 2026

–
lara 🌟

30/05/2026

Last day to catch “The Bestiary”, our group show at Sargent’s Daughters lower-level space 🌟

Featuring work by three Egyptian artists from the gallery’s roster–Dina Danish, Huda Lutfi, and Mohamed Monaiseer–the show mobilizes medieval Egyptian material histories, techniques, and motifs to reflect on contemporary personal, historical, and political narratives.

📍 Sargent’s Daughters (lower-level space)
4 Cortlandt Alley, New York
On view until May 30 - open until 6pm

–

💙

.danish

28/05/2026

We are delighted to share that Hend Samir has been awarded the fourteenth ABN AMRO Art Award.❣️

The jury describes Samir as a painter pur sang with a virtuosic technique who, in her work, tells enigmatic stories that seem to be constantly in motion. At the same time, she raises universal questions about trauma, sexuality, family relationships and forms of cohabitation.

The ABN AMRO Art Award is being presented for the 14th time; it focusses on promising female talent in the Netherlands. As part of the Award, Hend Samir will have an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam March 5th, 2027, and later that year at the ABN AMRO Art Space.

Congratulations Hend ♥️

Photos by Janiek Dam

27/05/2026

Happy Eid al-Adha from the Gypsum team 🌙 Wishing you all a joyful and peaceful holiday.

Last 5 days to catch our current group exhibition, “The Bestiary” featuring works by Dina Danish at Sargent’s Daughters, NYC, on view until 30 May.

The gallery will reopen on 2 June with the opening of Lara Baladi’s solo exhibition, “Z for Zarafa”🦒

Image: Dina Danish, I had to take a second paracetamol to carry this sword I, 2024
Khayamiya hand-sewn appliqué and embroidery, 202 × 59 cm

Address

3 Road 218, Maadi Degla, Maadi
Cairo
11728

Website

http://gypsumgallery.com/

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