Flair Magazine By Hedayat Reda
My mother is the kind of person who loves things deeply. She cherishes every item she owns and fills her home with bric-a-brac from her travels and expeditions. A professor of Islamic Art and Architecture, she holds a profound respect for history and craftsmanship—and it shows in everything she purchases, from her tablecloth to her purse. Accordingly, when these beloved items begin to wear and weather, it’s not an easy farewell for her.
“My bag is peeling, I don’t know what to do about it,” she said one day, holding up her most cherished scarlet bag—a find from a small shop she’d discovered while visiting her professor in southern Germany. “I’m in love with the color; it’s been a favorite since I bought it,” she sighed. I examined it closely, noting the flaking red paint and the small flecks of white peeking through.
“Oh, I see what you mean. I hate to say it, but I think it’s a lost cause, Ma. Wadaaiha.”
A few weeks later I caught her on her way out, an intricately designed geometric-print purse slung across her shoulder. “Ooh, what is this?” I asked, perplexed. “It’s my bag! I had it painted. Isn’t it gorgeous?” To say my jaw dropped to the floor is an understatement. Where there had been flecks of red peeling paint there now were fine gold lines and Ottoman-style Islamic patterns, alongside beautiful Arabic calligraphy. “This is your red bag?” I whispered. “Yes, an artist reworked it for me. Her name is Zeina Soliman.” The bag had gone from looking like an old, peeling mess, to a unique, tailor-made piece of art, made especially for my mother. I was mesmerized.
Years later, I finally meet Zeina in person. “I’ve always been an artist,” she tells me– as we chat, over Matcha and iced coffee outdoors at CSA- Maadi’s Community Services Association. “I was crawling and I was drawing,” she said with a smile. Her blonde hair and big green eyes give her a waifish look, but the second she opens her mouth, you know she means business.The kind of girl that is born with a paintbrush in her hand and knows what she wants from the get-go, regardless of what anyone else is doing, Zeina embodies a unique mix of wide-eyed youth and business-savviness, wrapped in one petite package. It is a given that a graduate of Central Saint Martin’s– the renowned London art college– would be taking the art-world by storm, but– in fact– Zeina is not only taking the art world by storm, but also the art-world’s closets …and bathrooms.
“My last project was a pharaonic-inspired bathroom,” she says. “Interior designer Amina Taymour approached me with an antique mirror she wanted to use, and asked me to design something that matched it.” The mirror, all gold and etched with pharaonic motifs, became the centerpiece of a mural featuring cranes and lotus flowers painted in soothing earth tones.
In her own work, Zeina draws inspiration from the deeply personal—from her grandfather’s youth in Palestine to the natural beauty she encounters on her walks through Maadi. One of her most intimate collections, Stories of Nablus, her Central Saint Martins graduation project, reimagines life in Palestine through abstracted, dreamlike scenes. The hero piece, a painting of her grandfather praying at his grandfather’s grave, captures the tender sentimentality that defines Zeina’s style.
The story of Reconstructed, her customization business, began in high school.
“I was bored,” she laughs, “so I decided to paint on my shoes. We were all wearing Stan Smiths, and I wanted to break away from the Abercrombie and Stan Smith mold.” Her hand-painted sneakers quickly became a hit with friends, who soon began asking her to customize their shoes—and then their mothers’ designer bags.
Whether it is a shoe, a bag, or a wall, Zeina breathes new life into much-loved pieces, gifts, and spaces. “Be an artist and do what makes you happy, but make a living out of it,” she recalls her father advising her at a young age. Advice she clearly took to heart.
Today, she has painted murals for the Hilton Cairo Nile Maadi and created wallpaper for luxury brands such as Cartier in Abu Dhabi through her work as a touch-up artist for de Gournay. “I applied three times before they accepted me,” she admits. “Once I did, I learned so much about wallpaper and Chinoiserie.”
With over 300 customized pieces to her name—bags, walls, motorbikes, leather jackets—you name it—Zeina’s whimsical, nature-infused work is inspired by artists like Elizabeth O’Neill, Caterina Gross, Adel El Siwi, and Leonardo da Vinci. “I especially love O’Neill’s expanded paintings”. If you look closely at her work, you can see soft echoing of da Vinci’s motifs and Gross’ pop-art like colour palette.
As for what’s next? Zeina smiles. “One day, I want to paint on airplanes or yachts. But for now, I’m collaborating with a friend on a limited-edition shoe collection launching this month at Apt.19 in Zamalek.”
Her parting words linger with me:
“My work is very emotional. Whether it is my personal work, or the work I do for clients, there is always an element of biography in it. It draws from people’s personal lives.”
Catch Zeina’s personal art on her instagram @zeinasolimanart and her customization work @reconstructed.
