Stories of Upper Egypt: the portraits
Desert Chronicles – Stories of Upper Egypt – 2025 – 2026.
luxor – West Bank – Malaqata
In 2025, Alaa Awad began his project “Stories of Upper Egypt” in Luxor, a remarkable and evolving series of murals that forms part of his broader “Desert Chronicles.” The project opened with a monumental 17 meter long wall painting portraying a lively camel market, capturing movement, atmosphere, and everyday life with vivid detail.
From this starting point, the work has steadily expanded across walls and public spaces. Awad has increasingly turned toward portraiture, creating large scale depictions of people from Upper Egypt. These faces are powerful and deeply expressive, marked by strong features, direct gazes, and a quiet sense of dignity. Many of the murals rise more than three meters high, making them impossible to overlook and allowing viewers to encounter them almost face to face.
Through these works, Awad brings visibility to communities and individuals who are rarely represented in contemporary visual culture. The murals do more than decorate space, they tell stories, preserve identity, and create a connection between past and present. In this way, “Stories of Upper Egypt” continues to grow as both an artistic and cultural narrative rooted in place, memory, and human presence.
