Artist Spotlight - "A Language Without Words"
- CARAVAN Arts
- Dec 17, 2025
- 6 min read
An Interview with noted Egyptian artist Sara Tantawy:
Having recently returned from CARAVAN's tour to Egypt, our president, Paul G. Chandler, had the opportunity to interview the Egyptian artist Sara Tantawy, one of the most compelling voices in contemporary Egyptian painting.
“Every painting for me is both a spiritual and artistic experience. I don’t paint scenes or people; I paint internal states trying to find their way to light."
- Sara Tantawy, artist
Sarah Tantawy is an Egyptian artist who grew up in Cairo and is now based in the USA. She earned a BA in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan University (2017). For four consecutive years, 2020-2023, she received a full-time scholarship from the Ministry of Culture in Egypt.
Her deeply emotive work often centers on the inner lives of women, as she explores themes of solitude and emotional resilience. Her paintings explore the fragile complexities of life alongside the inner strength and resiliency present to meet such challenges.
She has exhibited at noted galleries and exhibitions in Egypt, such as in the 6th Art Cairo (2025), and also in distinguished international art exhibitions such as in Dubai, Austria and Tunisia. Additionally, her work has been exhibited in celebrated art biennales including the Dakar Biennale (2024), Asian International Biennale in Bangladesh (2023), Carthage Contemporary Art Exhibition in Tunisia (2023), and the 8th Beijing International Biennale (2019).
For more information:
Website: saratantawy.com
Instagram: @sara.tantawy.artist
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Can you tell us about where you grew up and how your upbringing has influenced your work as an artist?
Sara: I grew up in Cairo — a city full of contradictions: chaos and calm, tradition and modernity. Perhaps that’s why my work often seeks a balance between inner noise and the quietness I’m constantly searching for. My mother had a major influence on me. She was an artist in her own way — a fashion designer with a refined sense of color and form. Growing up around her taught me to see beauty through details. When I was ten, a neighbor who was an art teacher recognized my talent and entered me into art competitions, helping me realize that art could be a way of life rather than a hobby.
From early on, I felt that every stage of my life left its imprint on my work — from the first pieces filled with fragility and confusion, to those exploring balance, survival, and later, an awareness of identity and existence.
I don’t see my art as a biography, but as a mirror of emotions that many people experience yet rarely express.
What first sparked your interest to create art? Who or what inspired you to pursue your artistic journey?
Sara: Art began for me from a sense of life rather than the idea of professionalism. I used to paint to understand, not to impress. The real turning point was when I realized that painting was the only language that understood me without words. Watching my mother design and create made me feel that creativity is something natural — not an exception. True inspiration comes from daily life — from people’s faces, from untold stories, and from the unanswered questions that linger.
Many of your paintings explore traditional dance from a reflective perspective rather than a form of entertainment. How do you see the role dance plays in your creative work?
Sara: Dance for me is not performance, it’s a symbolic language where the body speaks with honesty without the need for words. I discovered this deeply when I studied movement therapy — part of which included oriental dance. Through it, I realized that movement can be a mirror to the soul, expressing pain, joy, longing, and silence.
In my painting Connected Flow [see below], seven women move as one body connected by invisible threads. The number seven is not random — it symbolizes spiritual expansion and completeness.
The background motifs are inspired by ancient Egyptian tombs, where dance was part of daily ritual. Through the work, I try to link dance as a contemporary expression with its ancient Egyptian roots — both ultimately tell stories about life itself.
You have a selective color palette, often employing reds, blues and whites in a distinctive style with simplicity and intensity. Can you comment on your use of color and composition?
Sara: My colors are never a visual decision alone; they come from an emotional and spiritual state that shifts with every phase of my life. I began with red — fiery and alive, like an ignition point. Then came blue — calmer, deeper — and finally white, the color of silence and peace. Perhaps white became a permanent element because it gives space to breathe, and because for the ancient Egyptians, it symbolized purity and transcendence.
Your work is infused with a sense of movement and emotion, both personal and universal in appeal. Can you tell us about your inner journey in this regard?
Sara: Every painting for me is both a spiritual and artistic experience. I don’t paint scenes or people; I paint internal states trying to find their way to light. This journey has taught me that art isn’t about controlling chaos — it’s about making peace with it.
Can you tell us about your painting of the two mothers sitting on top of a shattering world? (see image below)
Sara: This painting marked the beginning of a new series I started recently, inspired by the broader reality of the Arab world — a deep sense that we’re living through a period of cultural and human fragmentation.
It isn’t literally about “mothers,” but about the feminine as a symbol of life and continuity — even as the world beneath them cracks; they still hold, absorb, and try to preserve what remains in balance. It also reflects a quieter anxiety — the fear of losing our roots amid waves of rapid change surrounding us.
The world in the painting is breaking apart, yet still holds hope. The women embody a quiet strength — the persistence of life despite fragility, and the desire to preserve what’s human even as everything else disintegrates.
" My colors are never a visual decision alone; they come from an emotional and spiritual state that shifts with every phase of my life. . . . each painting is an attempt to release something I can’t always explain."
Many of your artworks express both vulnerability and strength. What motivates you to create, and what insights are you hoping to communicate?
Sara: My motivation is simple and profound at the same time — it’s the desire to speak, but in a different language. A writer’s language is writing, a journalist’s language is storytelling, while mine is color, movement, and space. I can say everything without saying a word.
And yet, art for me is not just a form of expression — it’s a way of survival, a way to breathe, because each painting is an attempt to release something I can’t always explain.
From the very beginning, I’ve felt that every stage of my life leaves its mark on my work — from the early paintings filled with confusion and fragility, to the exhibitions where I began to explore balance, survival, and finally, an awareness of identity and existence. I don’t see my art as a documentation of my life, but as a mirror of emotions that many people go through without being able to express them.
Is there a particular painting of yours that you connect with more deeply than others?
Sara: Every painting represents a different chapter in my life, but the piece with the two women in white sitting atop a fractured world [see Quiet World above, and "detail" of the work below] holds a special place within me. It speaks about quiet endurance, about how life continues even when everything seems to collapse.
Can you share with us what you are working on artistically at this time and what you have coming up?
Sara: At the moment, I’m working on a new series that explores cultural transformation and the search for roots in a rapidly changing world. It doesn’t aim to provide answers, but to open a space for reflection — to capture that fragile moment of awareness before identity dissolves completely in the noise. This series feels like the next chapter in my journey — and perhaps, the beginning of a new way of telling stories through paint.
Other Paintings by Sara Tantawy:
L to R - Clockwise:
-Olive Branch, 2025, Oil on linen, 185 x 195 cm
-Untitled, 2015, Oil & acrylic on canvas, 100 X 80 cm
-Untitled Sketch, 2017, Pencil and acrylic on paper, 42 x 30 cm
-Red Veil, Oil on canvas, 22 x 28 cm
Watch a short video below of Sara Tantawy's exhibition "Silent Weeping" at Motion Art Gallery in Cairo, Egypt:
I went winless my first year in Retro Bowl College and almost quit. The turnaround season made every loss feel worth it.