Ezz Monem

Ezz Monem is a photo-based artist from Egypt who lives and works in Melbourne. He uses photography to explore the pluralism of reality. The images play with sensations of ambivalence and conflict, giving visual form to the multiplicity of identity in places, people, and objects.

Monem sources the images from found photos, archival fiction and non-fiction films and videos, and satellite imagery. He utilizes the camera’s mechanical reproduction capabilities and various darkroom techniques to transform the source imagery into photographic works and imaginary archives. Through the repurposing of images, he attempts to make autoethnographic works that come from his background, of growing up in Egypt and his experience migrating to Australia.

Monem graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University in 2007, but his explorations in visual arts began years earlier. His work has been shown in exhibitions in Egypt, Australia, and other countries in Europe and the Middle East. He was a Gertrude Studio Artist from 2022 – 2024, culminating in his solo exhibition ‘And He Said: This is Power?’ at Gertrude Glasshouse, and was curated into the 2023 National Gallery of Victoria Triennial. Monem has also exhibited solo shows at KINGS Artist-Run and Seventh Gallery and received the NOIR Darkroom Most Experimental Image award at the ILFORD CCP Salon. Monem was awarded his Master of Contemporary Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), University of Melbourne in 2021.