NAziR TANBOULi

British-Egyptian artist Nazir Tanbouli captures the vibrancy, movement and emotion evident in ancient Egyptian art in his work. Yet, these tropes are transformed through a sense of the artist’s twenty-first century vision and ‘energy’ into something busier, truly modern and inter-cultural. In this work, Tanbouli artfully transposes the same depth of expression onto the portrait of a man whose casual yet powerful pose and intense expression reminds us of depictions of the Pharaohs. The inclusion of the cat, an animal whose characteristics were admired to the extent of deification by the Ancient Egyptians, adds to this connection. The clearly contemporary setting, however, highlights the fusion of ancient and modern identities and creates the impression that the protagonist might start to speak, offering us his wisdom from across the centuries.