Fields of memory

Artbooth Gallery is pleased to announce Fields of memory, a solo exhibition by the pioneering Egyptian born artist Shalabia Ibrahim. Curated by Randa Sadaka, the exhibition will run from May 14 until June 21, 2026, offering a rare and intimate journey into a visual language shaped by the intersections of Egyptian and Syrian modernities. The essence of the exhibition Fields of memory unfolds as a vibrant tapestry of lived experience and imagination. Ibrahim’s work exists at a unique cultural crossroads; born in Monufia, Egypt, in 1944 and long based in Syria, her practice is deeply informed by the visual traditions of the Levant and the rural soul of the Nile. The exhibition highlights Ibrahim’s mastery of color as a language. Her dense, saturated palettes do more than fill space, they structure the image and carry an immediate affective presence, acting as an emotional anchor for the viewer. Her aesthetic, rooted in folk and popular art, utilizes stylized figures and simplified forms to create compositions that are at once universally accessible and profoundly symbolic. “Shalabia’s work allows the ordinary to exist within a shared visual memory,” says curator Randa Sadaka. “Everyday gestures and familiar faces are elevated, becoming archetypes of continuity and renewal.”