Chant Avedissian

Born Cairo, Egypt, 1951

Avedissian studied fine arts at the School of Art and Design, Montreal, Canada, 1970–3, and printmaking at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1974–6. He returned to Cairo in 1980, where he worked for the Aga Khan Foundation with celebrated Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy (d. 1989). Inspired by Fathy,Avedissian developed a strong interest in traditional arts and local materials, which he uses in many of his works. He has worked in a wide range of media, including photography and textiles. Since 1990 he has been working with painted stencils on cardboard.Avedissian’s work has been shown in several solo exhibitions, including the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, 1990; the British Council, Cairo, 1992; Leighton House, London, 1995; the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, 1998; and the National Museum of African Art,Washington, DC, 2000. He lives and works in Cairo.