Youssef Nabil
Encyclopedia
Youssef Nabil is an Egyptian artist & photographer.
Nabil started his photography career in 1992, short before meeting the American photographer David LaChapelle
in Cairo, with whom he worked in New York in 1993.
In 1997 Nabil worked in Paris with the Peruvian fashion photographer Mario Testino
till late 1998.
in 1999, Youssef Nabil had his first solo exhibition in Cairo.
Through the years he remained a close friend with the Egyptian-Armenian studio portrait photographer Van Leo (Leon Boyadjian, 1921–2001), who was always encouraging Nabil to leave to the West.
In 2001 & while visiting Cairo, the British artist Tracey Emin
discovered his work & later nominated him as a future top artist in Harper's & Queen magazine article Tomorrow People.
Nabil left Egypt in 2003, for an artist residency at La Cité internationale des Arts in Paris.
In 2006 he moved to live & work in New York.
Many have been subject to Nabil’s lens & distinctive technique of hand-colouring gelatin silver prints, including artists; Tracey Emin
, Gilbert and George
, Nan Goldin
, Marina Abramovic
, Louise Bourgeois
& Shirin Neshat
. Singers; Alicia Keys
, Sting & Natacha Atlas
. Actors; Omar Sharif
, Faten Hamama
, Rossy de Palma
, Charlotte Rampling
, Fanny Ardant
& Catherine Deneuve
.
In 2010 Youssef Nabil wrote, produced and directed his first film You Never Left, an 8 minute short film with actors Fanny Ardant
and Tahar Rahim
Nabil's work has been presented on numerous international solo and group exhibitions, at venues including the British Museum
, London; Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City; North Carolina Museum of Art
, Raleigh; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
, Newcastle; Centre de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; Savannah College of Art and Design
, Savannah; Kunstmuseum, Bonn; The Third Line, Dubai; The Townhouse gallery, Cairo ; Galerist, Istanbul; Marco Noire gallery, Turino; Nathalie Obadia
gallery, Paris; Yossi Milo gallery, New York; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla; Aperture Foundation
, New York and Villa Medici
, Rome.
Nabil lives and works in New York City
.
I Won't let you die Hatje Cantz Verlag, Germany http://www.hatjecantz.de/en_index.php, 2008
Sleep in My Arms Autograph ABP-London and Michael Stevenson-Cape Town, 2007
Prize in the Biennial of African Photography in Bamako
.
Nabil started his photography career in 1992, short before meeting the American photographer David LaChapelle
David LaChapelle
David LaChapelle is a photographer and director who works in the fields of fashion, advertising, and fine art photography, and is noted for his surreal, unique, sexualized, and often humorous style.-Early life:...
in Cairo, with whom he worked in New York in 1993.
In 1997 Nabil worked in Paris with the Peruvian fashion photographer Mario Testino
Mario Testino
-Early Life:Testino grew up in Lima, the eldest son of a businessman. When he was young he wanted to be a priest. Testino recalls being unpopular at school because of his flamboyance. He was good at math and went on to study economics at Universidad del Pacífico, where his insistence on wearing...
till late 1998.
in 1999, Youssef Nabil had his first solo exhibition in Cairo.
Through the years he remained a close friend with the Egyptian-Armenian studio portrait photographer Van Leo (Leon Boyadjian, 1921–2001), who was always encouraging Nabil to leave to the West.
In 2001 & while visiting Cairo, the British artist Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin
Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
discovered his work & later nominated him as a future top artist in Harper's & Queen magazine article Tomorrow People.
Nabil left Egypt in 2003, for an artist residency at La Cité internationale des Arts in Paris.
In 2006 he moved to live & work in New York.
Many have been subject to Nabil’s lens & distinctive technique of hand-colouring gelatin silver prints, including artists; Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin
Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
, Gilbert and George
Gilbert and George
Gilbert & George are two artists who work together as a collaborative duo. Gilbert Proesch and George Passmore have become famous for their distinctive, highly formal appearance and manner and their brightly coloured graphic-style photo-based artworks.-Early life:Gilbert Proesch was...
, Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin
Nancy "Nan" Goldin is an American photographer.-Life and work:Goldin was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the Boston, Massachusetts suburb of Lexington, to middle class Jewish parents whose ideas, moderately liberal and progressive, were put to the test when on April 12, 1965 their eldest...
, Marina Abramovic
Marina Abramovic
Marina Abramović is a Belgrade-born New York-based Serbian performance artist who began her career in the early 1970s. Active for over three decades, she has recently begun to describe herself as the “grandmother of performance art.” Abramović's work explores the relationship between performer and...
, Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois , was a renowned French-American artist and sculptor, best known for her contributions to both modern and contemporary art, and for her spider structures, titled Maman, which resulted in her being nicknamed the Spiderwoman...
& Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat شیرین نشاط is an Iranian visual artist who lives in New York. She is known primarily for her work in film, video and photography.-Background:Neshat's parents were upper middle-class...
. Singers; Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano...
, Sting & Natacha Atlas
Natacha Atlas
Natacha Atlas is a Belgian singer known for her fusion of Arabic and Western electronic music, particularly hip-hop. She once termed her music "cha'abi moderne" . Her music has been influenced by many styles including Arabic, hip hop, drum 'n' bass and reggae.Atlas began her career as part of...
. Actors; Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif is an Egyptian actor who has starred in Hollywood films including Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl. He has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won two Golden Globe Awards.-Early life:...
, Faten Hamama
Faten Hamama
Faten Hamama is an Egyptian producer and an acclaimed actress of film, television, and theatre. She was regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from melodramas to historical films and occasional comedies, though her chief successes were romantic dramas...
, Rossy de Palma
Rossy de Palma
Rossy de Palma, is a Spanish actress. Described by many as a Picasso come-to-life, Rossy de Palma broke the rules of beauty in 1988 when she starred in Pedro Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and became a model and muse for designers like Jean-Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, and...
, Charlotte Rampling
Charlotte Rampling
Charlotte Rampling, OBE is an English actress. Her career spans four decades in English-language as well as French and Italian cinema.- Early life :...
, Fanny Ardant
Fanny Ardant
Fanny Marguerite Judith Ardant is a French actress. She has appeared in more than fifty motion pictures since 1976. Ardant won the César Award for Best Actress in 1997 for her performance in Pédale douce.-Early life:...
& Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
.
In 2010 Youssef Nabil wrote, produced and directed his first film You Never Left, an 8 minute short film with actors Fanny Ardant
Fanny Ardant
Fanny Marguerite Judith Ardant is a French actress. She has appeared in more than fifty motion pictures since 1976. Ardant won the César Award for Best Actress in 1997 for her performance in Pédale douce.-Early life:...
and Tahar Rahim
Tahar Rahim
Tahar Rahim is a French actor of Algerian origin. Born in Belfort, France, his family is originally from the region of Oran, Algeria....
Nabil's work has been presented on numerous international solo and group exhibitions, at venues including the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, London; Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City; North Carolina Museum of Art
North Carolina Museum of Art
The North Carolina Museum of Art is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina, featuring paintings and sculpture representing 5,000 years of artistic work from antiquity to the present. The museum features more than 40 galleries as well as more than a dozen works of art in its Museum Park...
, Raleigh; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art is an international centre for contemporary art located on the south bank of the River Tyne alongside the Gateshead Millennium Bridge in Gateshead, North East England, United Kingdom...
, Newcastle; Centre de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah College of Art and Design
SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design, is a private, accredited and degree-granting university with locations in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia, Hong Kong, and Lacoste, France.-History:...
, Savannah; Kunstmuseum, Bonn; The Third Line, Dubai; The Townhouse gallery, Cairo ; Galerist, Istanbul; Marco Noire gallery, Turino; Nathalie Obadia
Nathalie Obadia
Nathalie Obadia is a French contemporary art dealer working in Paris and Brussels. She is a member of the bureau of the French professional committee of art galleries and was its vice-chairman for three years...
gallery, Paris; Yossi Milo gallery, New York; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla; Aperture Foundation
Aperture Foundation
The Aperture Foundation was founded in 1952 by Ansel Adams, Minor White, Barbara Morgan, Dorothea Lange, Nancy Newhall, Beaumont Newhall, Ernest Louie, Melton Ferris, and Dody Warren. Their vision was to create a forum for fine art photography, a new concept at the time. The first issue of...
, New York and Villa Medici
Villa Medici
The Villa Medici is a mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and now property of the French...
, Rome.
Nabil lives and works in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Publications
Two monographs have been published on Nabil's work:I Won't let you die Hatje Cantz Verlag, Germany http://www.hatjecantz.de/en_index.php, 2008
Sleep in My Arms Autograph ABP-London and Michael Stevenson-Cape Town, 2007
Awards
In 2003, Youssef Nabil was awarded the Seydou KeitaSeydou Keita
Seydou Keita or Seydou Keïta may refer to:* Seydou Keïta , Malian photographer* Seydou Keita , Malian footballer...
Prize in the Biennial of African Photography in Bamako
Bamako
Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...
.