Born in Abu Dhabi in 1982, Hicham Rahma grew up between Cairo and Abu Dhabi before settling permanently in Cairo in 2007. He graduated from the High Cinema Institute in Cairo in 2005, where he developed a foundation in visual storytelling and image-making that would continue to inform his artistic practice. Rahma began his professional career as an illustrator, contributing to Egyptian magazines and newspapers.
In 2011, he co-founded TokTok, an independent comics magazine based in Cairo that became part of his early engagement with illustration, visual narrative, and contemporary image culture. From 2014 onwards, he expanded his practice into graphic design and illustration within Cairo’s branding industry, working with agencies to develop visual identities for a wide range of brands. Over the years, his work has contributed to numerous logos and brand identities, and he continues to work as an illustration director within the branding field.
Alongside his commercial practice, Rahma has maintained illustration and image-making as an ongoing space for personal experimentation for nearly two decades. This parallel practice has allowed him to explore the possibilities of drawing beyond its applied function, gradually extending his visual language into fine art and experimenting with diverse materials and techniques, including charcoal and acrylic. His transition into exhibiting his work publicly culminated in his first solo exhibition in Cairo in 2021, followed by three further solo exhibitions.
These exhibitions marked an important development in a practice shaped by the intersection of illustration, graphic language, and the more open-ended possibilities of contemporary painting and drawing. Rahma continues to move between the worlds of illustration, visual communication, and fine art. For him, these disciplines are not separate pursuits but interconnected modes of inquiry, each offering new ways to explore the image and its expressive potential.
His commitment to experimentation remains central to his practice, sustained by a lifelong passion for drawing, illustration, and the evolving language of visual art.
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