Siwi’s Faces

The face has been a constant in El Siwi's work since the early 1990s. Tall, mask-like visages, at once Pharaonic and modern, recur across decades and media, alongside Sufi singers, calligraphy and patterned grounds. They are less portraits of particular people than an ongoing inquiry into what a face reveals and conceals.

Many of these works were shown in The Face and Beyond (Artspace, Dubai, 2017) and Charisma (Errm Gallery, Riyadh, 2024).