Written by Christelle El Chamy

Souad Abdelrasoul, born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1974, is a multidisciplinary surrealist visual artist. Her work bridges the abstract and the figurative, often blending human anatomy with botanical and cartographic motifs to explore existential themes. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from El Minya University (1998), a Master’s degree in Art History (2005), and a PhD in Modern Art History (2012).

Abdelrasoul’s practice is rooted in a deep engagement with biology, myth, and the natural world. Her figures are not idealized portraits but symbolic hybrids – tree-like forms, branching veins, and insectoid bodies – that speak to the interdependence between humans and their environment. Through these visual metaphors, she reflects on the body as both a physical and psychological landscape. Raised in Egypt, at the crossroads of Middle Eastern and African cultures, she developed a sensitivity to hybridity early on. A childhood fascination with anatomy and the intricate structures of plants continues to inform her detailed, layered compositions.

The Egyptian revolution of 2011, though initially a source of hope, left Abdelrasoul disillusioned in its aftermath. Like many artists of her generation, she experienced a period of creative paralysis as the promises of liberation gave way to political instability. Despite this, her work remained engaged with themes of struggle, resilience, and transformation – particularly in relation to women's experiences in patriarchal societies. While Abdelrasoul does not explicitly identify as a feminist, her work offers a pointed commentary on the socio-cultural conditions of women, highlighting both their marginalization and their agency. Her compositions are rich with natural symbols and literary allusions, enhancing the complexity of her visual narratives. 

One of her most notable paintings, Like a Single Pomegranate, features eleven figures, neither fully adult nor child, gathered around a table. At the head of the table, a man dressed in black reaches for a pomegranate, positioned next to a half-eaten counterpart. The surrounding figures, deep in thought or conversation, appear detached, yet their placement evokes a sense of collective deliberation. The painting invites a variety of interpretations, but the central narrative seems to focus on the role of women in a patriarchal society – marginalized yet still objectified and desired. The work subtly explores the precarious fate of women, often treated as prized possessions whose destinies are determined by men. Additionally, the figures in the artwork are encircled by vine-like plants painted in a lighter green that contrasts the darker figures. This imagery may symbolize the struggle to find unity and nourishment in a barren or oppressive environment, deepening the painting's commentary on both the marginalization and the connection of women in a male-dominated world.

In her artwork Eve’s Apple, 2021-2023 part of the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation collection (DAF) in Beirut, Abdelrasoul presents a striking acrylic painting that reimagines the figure of Eve as a goddess of strength, vulnerability, and defiance. A dark-skinned female form floats weightlessly against a luminous blue sky, her curving body reclining in a fetal position. One hand rests beneath her head in a gesture of quiet introspection, while the other delicately holds a red apple close to her mouth – a potent symbol of temptation, knowledge, and reclaimed power. Enveloped in a transparent, cocoon-like fabric that both shields and reveals her body, the figure exudes both delicacy and resilience. Below her, a two-headed dog – drawn from mythological archetypes of guardianship – stands alert on a grassy riverbank, evoking creatures that protect thresholds between life and death, the conscious and the subconscious. The symbolism underscores a liminal state of transformation and inner strength, while the expressive brushwork and chromatic interplay recall the flowing vitality of the Nile River, which Abdelrasoul often invokes as a metaphor for emotional and creative survival.

The apple in this work becomes a reclaimed icon: an answer to the masculine-coded Adam’s Apple, and a restoration of Eve’s original agency. Drawing on her personal and generational experiences, Abdelrasoul reflects on the weight of societal expectations – particularly around gender, sexuality, and artistic expression. Her time studying art in conservative Minya, where male-female interaction was policed and live nude study forbidden, led her to organize clandestine night-time drawing sessions with friends, driven by her belief in the necessity of seeing and representing the body in full. These formative challenges, alongside familial tensions around female propriety and artistic freedom, continue to shape the emotional force of her work.

In Eve’s Apple, as in much of her practice, Abdelrasoul merges myth with autobiography, offering surreal portraits of womanhood that speak to the layered experiences of mothers, daughters, and artists. Her figures are not idealized but emotionally vivid – grounded in pain, beauty, and the mysterious power of giving. Rather than seeking equality through mimicry, Abdelrasoul proposes a radical affirmation of the feminine: her art celebrates traits often dismissed as weak – emotionality, nurturing, vulnerability – as profound sources of strength and renewal.

Beyond individual works, Abdelrasoul’s practice is grounded in a unique visual language that merges anatomy with cartographic structure. She often draws inspiration from maps, using their contours as blueprints for human-like figures – where lungs resemble branching rivers and faces echo topographic lines. This interplay of the biological and the geographical allows her to explore identity as both internal and mapped, personal and collective. In works such as The Map of My Face or Dreamers, 2022, fragmented facial features are overlaid with anatomical symbols and botanical tracings, suggesting that the body itself carries history, memory, and place. Through this layered approach, Abdelrasoul collapses distinctions between the emotional and the structural, the natural and the scientific, offering a deeply personal yet universally resonant view of human existence.

Today, Abdelrasoul continues to live and work in Cairo, expanding her artistic reach both regionally and internationally while reaffirming her commitment to exploring the complexities of identity, femininity, and the human condition through her multidisciplinary practice.

Sources

Almas Art Foundation. 2023. Souad Abdelrasoul. October 10. Accessed December 07, 2024. https://www.almasartfoundation.org/artists/30-souad-abdelrasoul/video/.

Athena, Alilia. 2024. Orthrus Greek Mythology. April 21. Accessed December 12, 2024. https://paleothea.com/mythical-creatures/orthrus-greek-mythology/.

Behairy, Sahar. 2023. Souad Abdelrasoul. Accessed December 09, 2024. https://www.almasartfoundation.org/publications/5-souad-abdelrasoul-like-a-single-pomegranate/.

Britannica. 2011. Egypt Uprising of 2011. Accessed December 09, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/eve... Art Gallery. n.d. Souad Abdelrassoul. Accessed November 29, 2024. https://circleartagency.com/ar... Art. n.d. Souad Abdelrasoul. Accessed December 10, 2024. https://racotis.art/artist/souad-abdelrasoul/.

Samatar, Idil Husein. 2023. INTERVIEW | SOUAD ABDELRASOUL (FR & EN). March. Accessed December 10, 2024. https://www.ohgallery.net/blog... Gallery. n.d. Souad Abdel Rasoul. Accessed December 07, 2024. https://tam.gallery/artists/souad-abdel-rasoul/.

Tarzi, Nazli. 2023. Like a Single Pomegranate: When Souad Abdelrasoul’s surrealist Egyptian art adorned London. November 02. Accessed December 13, 2024. https://www.newarab.com/features/souad-abdelrasouls-surrealist-egyptian-art-london.