Aya Tarek

Tarek also produces indoor murals which she feels helps her in to be taken more seriously as an artist. However, she utterly stresses the importance of street art because it is accessible to anyone to take whatever they may need to from the work.

• Name — Aya Tarek آية طارق • Birth Name — Aya Tarek Hassan • Born — 14 November 1990 • Birthplace — Alexandria, Egypt • Education — Alexandria University • Occupation — Artist • Website — www.ayatarek.com

Tarek, born on November 14, 1989, began working in publicity and advertising for various companies. She attended Alexandria University, where she specialized in oil painting but found the fine art classes too restrictive. As a result, in 2008, she began experimenting with graffiti as a more expressive outlet. Tarek inherited her grandfather's studio located in downtown Alexandria where she established the first graffiti artist group in the city. The studio known as the Art Establishment, was where Tarek along with a group of friends experimented with graffiti, comic book art, muralism, and multimedia. Struggling to get her work into galleries, Tarek took her art to the streets. Tarek's grandfather was a graphic designer and cinema poster artist in the 1960s and was said to be her main source of inspiration, she stated, "I'm totally inspired by his work. We have the same brush."

Like many artists, Tarek initially struggled to exhibit her work in private galleries. Determined to showcase her art without censorship or restrictions, she turned the streets into her own gallery. At the time, street art was not popular and usually frowned upon, which made it difficult for the community to acknowledge her work. Tarek, however, states that gender was never an issue when she first started her graffiti work. Ever since, she has strived to break free from the labels imposed on her because of her gender and nationality, believing that her work should be evaluated as art in its own right, rather than as "women's art" or "Egyptian art." Tarek is seen by many as the first street artist in Egypt. By 2009, Tarek had already created several street-art pieces and started to make an appearance in independent films. She was in a film by Ahmed Abdallah called Microphone, which explores Alexandria's art scene leading up to the 2011 revolution Tarek created two distinct murals for the film and developed a technique specifically for it too in order to best represent Alexandria's culture. The film premiered on January 25, 2011, the day protests began and which ultimately led to the overthrowing of Hosni Mubarak. In one of her own pieces, "How to Fuck Your Mind", Tarek portrays a graffiti artist's instant rise and fall from fame. The animated film includes Tarek's personal experiences with the media and how have affected her. An outspoken critic, Tarek uses multiple art venues that center on graffiti to express her views and share them with others in public spaces. She explains her philosophy, asserting that graffiti "is not about being rich, or having a secluded space." Tarek has a strong following on Facebook and several Egyptian-based blogs. One of Tarek's earliest political works was a collaborative graffiti piece with multidisciplinary designer and artist Mohamed Gaber, featuring a fist alongside the words "Be with Art." In the fall of 2012, Tarek participated in an exhibition in Beirut called White Wall, which brought together graffiti artists from all over the world. The exhibit was organized by the Beirut Art Center in partnership with Foundation Saradar and featured an exhibit at the Beirut Art Center and works displayed on the streets of Beirut. Aya Tarek describes her experience here to be extremely free and the other artists were not expected to stick to one message when creating this wall. Many different artists from all around the world came here to work in a space free of judgement. In the same year, Tarek was featured in episode eleven of the documentary series Women from the Egyptian Revolution, where she discussed the impact of the revolution on graffiti art in Egypt. She described pre-revolution graffiti as open to interpretation and artistic experimentation, stating, "The graffiti we used to do before the revolution was open to any subject, and it was open for experimentation in different techniques." Tarek further explained that during and in the years after the revolution, graffiti in Cairo became predominantly stencil-based and politically driven, limiting artistic individuality and personal expression. Although Tarek's work is seen as a part of a political agenda, she states that, "most of us are not really political; [us] artists … are not about politics, nor is our art. We’re about style and technique. It’s not about heavy political subject matter" She states that after the revolution, the West's view of Egypt changed drastically, which is why many artists portrayed political ideals in their work. While Tarek's work gained attention during the revolution, she now steers away from propaganda, focusing instead on expressing her artistic value through other means. Aya Tarek stresses the importance of street art, especially in Egypt. She talks on how it is extremely available to the public to see, despite the vast censorship that occurs in her country. She states, “The street is for everyone.” She considers herself to be an experimental artists, and practices vast creative freedom in her work. In December 2020, Tarek had her first solo exhibition titled The Fear of Missing Out which included fifteen works of art in which she explored the feelings of anxiety emphasized by social media and the feelings of falling behind in comparison to others. Held at the SHELTER Art Space in her hometown Alexandria, this exhibition incorporated works of various styles and colours. Through the use of virtual reality, Tarek makes a shift from her usual large-scale mural work.

In November 2024, she received the 20th UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture along filmmaker Alidji Alvin, making her the youngest woman to receive this prize in the culture category.