Essam Marouf was born in Cairo and studied painting from 1976 at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo, graduating from the Mural Painting Section in 1981. Between 1982 and 1985, he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. Marouf has held solo exhibitions and participated in international group shows in Egypt and in Europe. Selected solo exhibitions include, “Discovering Visions within a Trapped Memory,” 2014, Gallery Ward, Dubai; “Painting… this magnificent way of life,” Helga Hofman Gallery, the Netherlands, 2014; and “Same people… same story,” Helga Hofman Gallery, 2011. Selected group exhibitions include, PAN Amsterdam and Helga Hofman Gallery, 2012; Institut du monde arabe, Paris, 2012; Syra Arts Gallery at Art Palm Beach, Florida, 2012; “Life is our Muse,” Ofok Gallery, Cairo, 2011; ME.NA.SA. Art Fair, Beirut, and Gallery Ward, Dubai, 2011; the 11th Cairo Biennale, 2008; and the Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, 2007. Essam Marouf’s works are held in various private, corporate and museum collections locally and abroad. He lives and works in Cairo and Amsterdam.