Dina El Sioufi

Dina El-Sioufi is an Egyptian painter who was born in Alexandria and grew up in the UK, arriving there in the 1970s with her family. A self-described academic-turned-painter, El-Sioufi studied at Kings College, University of London, gaining a BSc. in Physics and a postgraduate diploma in Mathematical Physics. Over the years, she returned to studying, gaining a Master’s in Modern French from Birkbeck, University of London, and a further qualification in the History of Art. She also took painting courses from 2010, attending the Royal Drawing School, Heatherley School of Fine Art and Slade Summer School (UCL) in London, alongside others in Nice and Lyon in France.

El-Sioufi’s wide and varied areas of study, interest and expertise are evident in her paintings, which often draw on the arts, from music to literature, in their subject matter. She uses paint to retell or augment stories more closely related to other mediums, taking characters from selected extracts of writing, including poetry or novels, or protagonists from operas and plays, and then not only brings them to life, but gives them a unique contextual narrative and reimagined setting. This can include incorporating other unrelated personalities into a work, resulting in an intriguing amalgamation and wholly new scene and story. 

Examples include a painting of the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, which includes another figure - a flute player taken from Henri Rousseau’s ‘La Charmeuse de Serpents’ and lines from the poet’s work. In another painting, Carmen, the gypsy woman in Georges Bizet’s opera of the same name, is depicted alongside Siegfried the Wälsung, a character from another opera, this time ‘Siegfried’ from Richard Wagner’s ‘The Ring’ cycle. 

Talking about her work, El-Sioufi has said: “Most of my paintings attempt to portray inspirations from my various readings, thoughts, encounters with music, poetry, literature that play a timeless and actual role in our world.” 

Her characters inevitably have a theatrical aspect to them, captured in oils on linen, and often displaying melancholic or haunting expressions, sometimes posed, as if sitting for the artist.

El-Sioufi’s work can be found in private collections in Egypt, France, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UK, and in public collections such as White &Case International Law Firm, London, the Egyptian Embassy and Cultural Office, Vienna, Austria. She has taken part in several solo exhibitions, including, most recently: ‘Egyptian Voyage-Opera Aperta’, ECB Mayfair, London, UK (2022); ‘Writing & Difference’, Egyptian Cultural Bureau, Mayfair, London, UK (2020); ‘Recollections of Things Past’, Afternyne Gallery, London, UK (2018); ‘Egypt Eternal Inspiration’, Egyptian Embassy and Cultural Office, Vienna, Austria (2018/2017); ‘Egypt Eternal Inspiration’, ECB, London, UK (2017); and ‘Egypt Eternal Inspiration’, Egyptian Embassy, Berlin, Germany (2016).

She has also participated in several collective shows, including events at: Ed Cross Fine Art Gallery, London, UK (2023); D Contemporary Gallery, Mayfair, London, UK (2021); D Contemporary Gallery, Mayfair London, UK (2021); Its Liquid, The Line Gallery, London, UK (2020); Lansdowne Club, Mayfair London, UK (2019); and Kensington Art Fair London, UK (2019).

El-Sioufi currently lives and works in London, UK.