Guirguis Lotfy

Born in 1955, Guirguis Lotfy lives and works in Alexandria, Egypt. Starting in 1980, he studied at the Alexandria Faculty of Fine Arts and pursued with a Masters in Coptic Painting (4th-8th century). In 1994, he was awarded a PhD on Coptic Art and its influence on Modern Art from the Cairo Faculty of Fine Arts. Lotfy depicts Egyptian feasts, celebrations and rituals that were, and still are, part of the cultural fabric. Inspired by Pharaonic, Islamic or Coptic traditions, Lotfy offers a personal rendering of the bonding and shared history. He represents mundane scenes with simple ordinary people. Lotfy recreates the two-thousand-year-old Egyptian painting technique of religious iconography and the famed Fayoum portraits using gold leaf, bee wax or tempera colours dissolved in egg yolk. For him, the ancient serves the present and Egypt is one whole of many parts. It is yesterday, today and tomorrow; it is his primary source of pride and he intends to make it eternal through his art.