Soad Abdelrasoul lives and works in Cairo. She graduated in 1998 from Fine Arts, completed her masters in History of Art in 2005, and finished her PhD in Modern Art History in 2012. Her work has been on display since 1998. In addition to designing book covers and books for children, Soad conducts art workshops for children inside and outside Egypt. She has taken part in many group and solo exhibitions in Egypt and abroad, such as: Red Hill Gallery, Kenya (2016); Circle Art gallery and Gravetty art gallery, Kenya (2018); Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo, Egypt (2017,2012); Caravan Gallery, USA (2014); Gazambo Gallery, Madrid, Spain (2013).
Soad Abdel Rasoul employs different mediums such as drawing, painting, graphic design, and collage to delineate densely detailed and interweaving human and geographical maps that help us to trace back our roots in the magnitude of the living world. By depicting metamorphosized figures, she doesn’t seek to visualize human physical beauty, but attempts to reflect on the earth’s secrets and the connections between humans and the elements of existence like earth, metals and plants. Tree-like figures, branching veins and arteries, and monstrous insect-like characters merge on ink-color-mixed media canvases and collage busts to remind viewers of the vital bond between the interior of the human body and the exterior. By using fragments of maps and scientific illustrations of the human body, Soad Abdel Rasoul re-conceptualizes the way we perceive space and repurposes notions of body, science, and nature into something strikingly personal, which exalts the feminine, the emotional, the overgrowing natural, and the animalesque.