A visitor takes photos of a painting at an art gallery in Aswan, Egypt, on March 8, 2023. An art gallery on "Women and Life" opened on Wednesday evening in Upper Egypt's glamorous city of Aswan with the participation of more than 20 artists from several countries to mark the International Women's Day. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

An art gallery on "Women and Life" opened on Wednesday evening in Upper Egypt's glamorous city of Aswan with the participation of more than 20 artists from several countries to mark the International Women's Day that falls on March 8 every year.

Most of the paintings and artworks displayed in the gallery hall depict female faces with different perspectives and symbolisms.

One of the paintings portrays a face of a woman colored in pink with real tangible handmade earrings hanging from her ears.

"I was keen to draw a woman's face as a clear element in the painting, and I attached earrings I bought from Aswan last year to give the painting a touch of Aswan," Kuwaiti artist Sharefa Dashti told Xinhua, noting the pink color symbolizes women's emotions.

"Each of the artists expressed their support for women's role and power in society through their paintings in the gallery," the artist said.

Among the displayed works were paintings of an Arab woman behind bars, a woman playing the violin, a woman's face merged with tree roots and leaves, a woman with long hair with her upper body wrapped in actual bandages, and others.

Huda Al-Kazwine, an Iraqi artist who has been living in Denmark for over 25 years, brought a textile collage using objects including black thread symbolizing a woman's body in a black dress, a copper star shape expressing a woman's golden hair, and other leather and wooden objects.

She explained that the painting is based on a novel by Algerian writer Ahlam Mosteghanemi entitled "Black Suits You so Well," telling a love story when a man falls in love with a woman in a black dress.

The gallery is the output of a painting workshop entitled "Symposium of Women and Life" as part of the ongoing Aswan International Women Film Festival (AIWFF) running from March 5 to 10 to shed light on women's causes and rights.

"There is no dividing line between cinema and fine art, for cinema is actually a large painting," said Nermine Amer, an organizer of the AIWFF as well as the symposium and the art gallery.

Amer pointed out that the event gathered works of artists from different countries including Kuwait, Qatar, Denmark, Iraq, Pakistan and Sweden.

Although the gallery is aiming to highlight women's role and shed light on their status, the participating artists are not restricted to women.

Qatari artist Abdulrahman Almutawah used poster colors on canvas to compose his two paintings representing Qatari women in traditional costumes and expressing "the greatness and pride of Qatari women."

"I see that the relation between man and woman is so strong, for they are both the basis of the society," he told Xinhua.

Dozens of visitors admired the unique artworks, including foreign visitors, Egyptian actresses participating in the film festival, as well as young people from Aswan and other provinces in Egypt.

"The paintings featured in the gallery, on this world day for women, touch every woman. They depict nice features of every one of us," Amira Khalifa, a young woman from Aswan, told Xinhua. 

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