CAIRO.- If paintings are to be compared with music then this is the closest that Mutaz Elemam has conveyed in his new body of work “Unyielding River”.

Infatuated with the beauty and majesty of the Nile , Elemam revisits a recurrent theme that he has long and continuously explored throughout his career.

Part factual and part memory , this show marks a strong and mature departure in his artistic process; more so regarding composition, colour palette and brushwork than subject matter.

Culled from an extensively rich visual repertoire and gleaned from his innumerable travels , he has developed a unique vocabulary of subtle and more muted colours, free-flowing brushstrokes that capture the energy of the river and the spirit of the landscape around it.

Twenty three compelling paintings in acrylic on canvas that reveal an inherent unity in this body of work where the focus on waterscapes and landscapes reveals a technical proficiency that is confident and more determined . The picture plane is no longer confined to the traditional divisions of “two halves” but instead is intuitively unshackled from the boundaries of grid and perspective rendering the overall composition freer and more serene.

The brushwork is more painterly, applied in lush , horizontal sweeping strokes merging sky and land into one plane and suffusing the waterscapes with a shimmering light that reflects the River in all its glory and might.

The colour palette is “quieter” and more subdued with the occasional tonal contrasts that give the fluvial flora a sense of natural drama without having to revert to his previous use of highly saturated colours. Elemam’s attention to detail where a conspicuous red or green accent is added to enliven a work or simple cast shadows capturing the iridescent ripples of the water are testimony to a stridently mature and confident technical approach.

Here is an artist with a relentless curiosity and an insatiable passion for all things beautiful delivering a fresh and mellow visual vocabulary in interpreting the world around him .

Time and the unyielding river stay and we , mere mortals , pass on ….

Mutaz Elemam was born and raised in Kassala in the Eastern region of Sudan until he went to Khartoum to study Fine Arts at the Sudan University of Science and Technology.

Between 2003 and 2007 he worked in Art Therapy at the Grace Child Care Organization in Khartoum, an establishment that lodges and teaches young survivors of wars and adverse social circumstances until they reach the age of adolescence.

His artistic practice encompasses painting, drawing, mixed media and collage.

Elemam has participated in numerous solo and collective exhibitions regionally and internationally . He is also currently part of a collective exhibition “The Khartoum School: The Making of the Modern Art Movement in Sudan (1945 – present)” at the Sharjah Art Foundation.

He was the editor of the Africa Art file for the “Not Apartheid Art” Cam Casoria art magazine.

He lives and works between Egypt and Sudan.

Maie Yanni is an independent artist, art curator and art contributor. She is a graduate of The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and is specialized in Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and High-Risk Obstetric anaesthesia. In the year 2000 she took a sabbatical from medicine to concentrate full-time on her artistic and curatorial practice.

Ubuntu Art Gallery, Cairo , Egypt is a young two-year old gallery that has made enormous strides on the local and international art scene and has a strong interest in contemporary African art.

“Unyielding River” a solo show by Mutaz Elemam concludes on the 31st December 2016.