Hafez Gallery Makes Frieze London Debut With Two-Artist Showcase

Hafez Gallery will make its debut at Frieze London this October with ‘Dialogue of Forms’, a two-artist presentation bringing together Egyptian artist Ahmed Nawar and Saudi artist Faisal Samra.

The presentation will take place at Booth D09 in The Regent’s Park from October 14th to 18th, with an invitation-only VIP preview on October 14th and 15th. Frieze London will return to The Regent’s Park for its 2026 edition alongside Frieze Masters, bringing together almost 300 galleries from 48 countries and regions.

For ‘Dialogue of Forms’, Hafez Gallery will present works by two generations of artists whose practices approach the body, image and history through distinct visual languages.

Nawar, born in Egypt in 1945, is a prominent figure in Egyptian modern art and a master printmaker whose practice spans painting, sculpture and graphic art. He studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo before continuing his education at Madrid’s San Fernando Academy. His work frequently combines geometric and organic forms, reflecting his longstanding engagement with the relationship between humanity and civilisation.

The works presented at Frieze will include ink and felt-tip works from Nawar’s ‘Will of Nation’ cycle, through which conflict is translated into forms that move between figuration and abstraction. Hafez Gallery previously devoted an exhibition to the artist’s ‘The Will’, describing the series as part of his influential contribution to Arab contemporary art.

Samra, born in Bahrain in 1955 to a Saudi family, is recognised as a pioneering figure in conceptual art in the Arab Gulf. Educated at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he has worked across painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation and performance. His practice frequently places the human figure at its centre while examining identity, existence and cultural tension.

At Frieze, Samra will be represented through wire-mesh and fabric sculptures that explore presence, absence and the body. His use of wire mesh as an armature for three-dimensional forms dates back to his ‘Heads and Other Body’ series of the 1990s, which blurred the boundaries between painting and sculpture.

Samra’s work is held in the collections of institutions including the British Museum and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha.

Through ‘Dialogue of Forms’, Hafez Gallery will bring the practices of two artists from different generations and artistic contexts into a single presentation, positioning their contrasting approaches to form, the body and history alongside one another at one of the international art calendar’s major annual fairs.

Frieze London will run from October 14th to 18th at The Regent’s Park, with general admission beginning on October 15th.