Naim received a bachelor of fine arts (1990), master of fine arts (1996), and PhD in contemporary art (2003) from the College of Art Education, Cairo, where she was a student of Mohammed Abla. She was the first person in her family to receive an advanced degree, and used proceeds from sales of her art to support her parents and brothers.[3] Naim has served on the faculty of art education at both Helwan University and her alma mater.[4][5]
Process and work
Taking inspiration from the anonymous environment of Cairo's busy streets, Naim's primary artistic process begins with photographing or filming people in public settings.[2][3] She typically enlarges these figures to life-size or greater when printing her work in black-and-white on paper or canvas.[2][6] Installed in a gallery setting, Naim's decontextualized portraits may also suggest reconfigured street scenes for the viewer to navigate.[6] These photographic prints are sometimes hand-colored, collaged with rolled-up newspapers, or adorned with hand-painted motifs of circles, dots, arabesques, and other symbols.[2][6][7] In addition, Naim has exhibited both drawings and paintings entirely composed of repeating shapes and colors, with a focus on naturalistic forms like flowers, stars, and trees.[4][8] The repetitiveness of these common symbols in her work, which are found in both modern and traditional artistic traditions around the world, is meant to highlight shared experiences in the human condition.[2][3] Furthermore, critics have noted that Naim's work reflects themes of modernization and globalization in urban Egypt, as well as raises questions about cultural binaries, such as masculine and feminine, contemporary and traditional, religious and secular, and fine arts and handicrafts.[2][3][6]
