BIO
Sara Sallam (1991) is an Egyptian multidisciplinary artist, designer, and visual researcher based in the Netherlands. She works with photography, video, and creative writing, often re-appropriating and manipulating archival material to invite hidden meanings to emerge. She began self-publishing her projects in the form of handmade books in 2020. Themes of absence, loss, and longing run throughout her research-based work in which she explores ways of portraying things we cannot see and people we can no longer meet. Against this backdrop, she reflects on growing up in Egypt, criticising the colonial heritage manifested in tourism, archaeology, and museum practices preventing Egyptians from relating to their past and ancestors.
Sara’s work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group shows and fairs such as Photo London and Intersect 21, and is held in the collection of the Museum of Old and New Art and in private collections. She was awarded grants from Magnum Foundation, Arab Fund for Arts & Culture, the Prince Claus Fund, and Mophradat. Her work was shortlisted for the Lange-Taylor Prize, the Friends of the Arab World Institute Award, Kassel Dummy Award, the Stedelijk Museum’s Art Acquisitions, and Magnum Foundation Fund.
I’m represented by Tintera Gallery
I’m a member in WomenPhotograph
I’m on Instagram and Linkedin
I'm reachable via this email
AWARDS | NOMINATIONS
2021 Acquisition, Museum of Old and New Art
2019 Shortlist, Stedelijk Museum’s Municipal Art Acquisitions 2020
2019 Shortlist, Magnum Foundation Fund
2018 Nominated, Joop Swart Masterclass
2017 Finalist, Lange-Taylor Prize
2017 Special Mention, The Friends of the Arab World Institute Award
2017 Nominated, Joop Swart Masterclass
2016 Nominated, Plat(t)form Portfolio Review, Fotomuseum Winterthur
2016 Shortlist, Kassel Dummy Award
2016 Shortlist, PhotoIndependent Art Fair
EXHIBITIONS
2021 Group Exhibition A Whole Population of Poets, at Sumac Space
2021 Group Exhibition A Whole Population of Poets, at Sumac Space
2021 Group Exhibition Familiar Faces: Spring Exhibition, at Tintera Gallery, Cairo
2021 Intersect 21, Online Photography Fair with Tintera Gallery
2021 Participation as a Guest Artist at the Open Edition Gallery, invited by Mohamed Somji
2020 Group Exhibition Eternal Light II, curated by Art D’Egypte, at The Factory, Cairo
2020 Photo London, Online Photography Fair with Tintera Gallery
2020 Online Print Sale For The Love of Beirut
2020 Online Print Sale The Female Gaze
2020 Online Print Sale Diversify Photo Covid-19 Relief Print Sale
2019 Group Exhibition The Autumn Exhibition, curated by Tintera Photographic Art Consultancy, at Tintera Gallery, Cairo
2019 Group Exhibition She Tells, curated by Soma Art Gallery, at B’sarya Gallery, Alexandria
2018 Group Exhibition She Tells, curated by Soma Art Gallery, during Cairo Photo Week, Cairo
2018 Group Exhibition Artchaeology: Intersection between Art and Archaeology, curated by International Association of Photography and Theory, at The Nicosia Municipal Art Centre, Nicosia
2018 Solo Exhibition The Fourth Pyramid Belongs to Her, at Darb 1718 Gallery, Cairo
2017 Group Exhibition Humaness, curated by Bertan Selim, at Sexyland, Amsterdam
2017 Photobook presented at Format Festival, Derby
2016 Photobook presented at Offprint London, at Tate Modern, London
2016 Photobook presented at PhotoIndependent Art Fair, Los Angeles
2016 PostGraduate Show In The Forest of Things, University of
the Arts London, London
2014 Group Exhibition Layer of Green, at Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo
2013 Group Exhibition Spuren 2.0 Symposium, at E-Werk, Freiburg
2013 Group Film Screening Cross Culture Video, at Goethe Institute Cairo and Artellewa Gallery, Cairo
EDUCATION
2019 M.A. in Film and Photographic Studies (Cum Laude), at Leiden University, NL
SELF-PUBLISHED MONOGRAPHS
2021 A Tourist Handbook: Egypt Outside of Egypt (Second Edition)
GRANTS | SCHOLARSHIPS
2020 Grant from the Prince Claus Fund
2019 M.A. in Film and Photographic Studies (Cum Laude), at Leiden University, NL
2016 M.A. in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography (Distinction), at the London College of Communication, UK
2013 B.A. in Media Design (High Honours), at the German University in Cairo, EG
SELF-PUBLISHED MONOGRAPHS
2021 A Tourist Handbook: Egypt Outside of Egypt (Second Edition)
2021 Let My Eyes Have a Glimpse of You
2020 A Tourist Handbook: Egypt Outside of Egypt (First Edition)
2020 If I Can Be Heard In The Place Where You Are
2020 At Last, I Hold Your Gaze
GRANTS | SCHOLARSHIPS
2020 Grant from the Prince Claus Fund
2017 Mophradat Grant for Artists
2016 Arab Documentary Photography Program, by Magnum Foundation, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, and Prince Claus Fund
2015 Vice Chancellor’s International Scholarship, University of the Arts London
2012 Excellence Award, The German University in Cairo, covering a summer Photography workshop at Berliner Technische Kunsthochschule
2010 Excellence Award, The German University in Cairo, covering a summer 2D Animation course at Animation-School-Hamburg
2008 Excellence Award, The German University in Cairo, covering a summer German language A2 course at Ludwig Maximilian Universitaet
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