Iman Dabbous
Follow ArtistIman Dabbous is an Egyptian mixed-media artist who was born in Cairo and grew up in London, UK.
She relocated to the US in 2017, where she enrolled on the Studio Art BFA programme at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, New York University, graduating in 2022, after taking a year out of school to focus on her personal work during Covid in 2021.
Dabbous’s primary focus in recent years has been fashion illustration and collage in the world of publishing. She undertakes regular assignments for the US edition of 10 magazine, among others, in New York and has also embarked on several collaborative ventures for jewellery projects.
Collectively, these initiatives, which include working closely with fashion designers, have enabled her to explore and take inspiration from the junctures where art and fashion align.
“I’m really interested in fashion and textiles, both in their own right and also how as external factors, I can incorporate them into my painting, which gives me exciting options rather than having to simply work on a flat surface,” she said. “I love getting creative and working in between these worlds.”
Dabbous’s work to date is largely figurative, in a practice that sees her explore the human form through careful and informed use of colour and mixed media to highlight key aspects and narratives of her pieces. By distorting the human form, she is able to create her own world in which the viewer can almost be a part.
Significantly, Dabbous is now preparing to return to Egypt, in a move that will see her sharpen her focus on painting and simultaneously dig deeper into her heritage, in works that she expects to be large-scale and multi-disciplinary in form, encompassing a diverse range of media and genres, from photography to portraiture.
“I’m excited to be relocating to a new space where I can lock myself up and be inspired to make new work,” she said.
Dabbous’s work features regularly in the US edition of 10 magazine. It has also appeared in Architectural Digest online and in exhibitions that include ‘Egypt: Then and Now’, Artscoops (2024) and an earlier show at Leighton House Art Museum, Holland Park, London.
