The Urban Chaos

The works of Ahmed Farid are a mixture between gestural abstract expressions with delicate forms, becoming a rich interplay between chromatic textures and realistic features. Reminiscent of the city street scenes of modern Egyptian artist Gazbia Sirry and the thick impastos of Nicolas de Stael, Farid’s works attest to his breath of art historical knowledge as he infuses both American painting styles and Egyptian references. In their large-scale size, the viewer is overwhelmingly captivated as they confront a condensed city scene that alludes to the richness in the diverse urban housing in his country amidst social and political changes throughout.

Urban Chaos is a richly evocative work, with deep colours and forms cascading vertically, capturing the distant shadows, the waves of colour and light gradations of the scene. Figures and forms are indecipherable, and instead the abstract forms morph into an emotionally triggering work revealing the artist’s own reality. Impastos of gold leaf are found in the upper part of the work, emblemizing the staggered city scene as a unified, dense and diverse organism, with a bold and electrifying presence embracing the viewer.