A Startling Rush

One with paint

Hend Samir paints with both fine brushes and brushes as big as brooms. She almost disappears into her paintings, which ripple loosely across the floor of her studio, becoming one with the fluidity of paint. With shifting rhythms and varying tempos in her brushwork, she brings figures to life from multiple layers of colour: mothers and toddlers, musicians and lovers. A group of children seems to soar towards us: flying headlong into freedom.

The artist

Hend Samir (Egyptian, born in Kuwait, 1986) lives in Amsterdam and grew up in Egypt. With infectious energy, she paints both the human struggle and joyful game of being alive. Samir allows the paint to vibrate, shimmering in a sea of ??stories.

The art

A Startling Rush?is Samir's first solo museum exhibition. This survey brings together early paintings alongside her expansive mature works, that earned her the?Royal Award for Modern Painting?in 2021. The exhibition also features brand-new canvases, ranging from intimate scenes to sweeping, dynamic vistas, filled with a rhythm of hope and sounds of the future.