Gazbia Sirry -- Painter

Prize-winning Egyptian artist Gazbia Sirry is one the Arab world's leading exponents of modern painting. Educated in Cairo, Paris, Rome and London, Ms Sirry served as Professor of Painting on the Faculty of Art at Helwan University in Cairo. In addition, Ms. Sirry has been granted numerous fellowships, including the State Fellowship for Creative Artists (1962-66, 1969-71), the Huntington Hartford Foundation Fellowship (1965), the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdient (1975-6), Fulbright and National Museum for Women in Art Fellowship (1993).

She presented 55 one-woman exhibitions of her work between 1953 and 1988 in Europe, North America and the Arab world as well as numerous other group and international exhibitions in Egypt and abroad.

Among the many prizes she has won for her painting are the Prize of Rome (1952), an honorary prize at Venezia Bienale (1956), the first prize at the Salon de Caire (1960), and the great prize of International Contemporary Art in Monaco (1968).

She is a member of the Egyptian Syndicate of Plastic Arts, the Societe des Amis d'Art, the Egyptian Society of Graphic Artists, the Association of Cairo Atelier for Writers and Artists, Society of Wakalat Al Ghouri Artists, and the Committee of Fine Arts on the Supreme Council of Culture within the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.

Her work has been frequently referred to in numerous journals and books, including the Dictionary of International Biography, the International Who's Who of Women and the Encyclopedie de la Peinture, and Who's Who in the Arab World. Her work has also been covered in several television documentaries. An artistic biography, Gazbia Sirry, was published by the General Organization for Information in 1984.