Status (checked October 2026): Luxor Art Gallery has closed its space opposite the Colossi of Memnon. The gallery announced this in a farewell message on its website, which is undated. Its founder says she hopes to return at a new location; we have found none announced.
Most visitors cross to Luxor’s West Bank for the dead: tombs, mortuary temples, two giant statues on a flat green plain. For a few years there was a reason to meet the living, too. Luxor Art Gallery opened on the West Bank in November 2018 to give Upper Egypt’s contemporary artists a permanent place to show their work. The story is worth knowing, and the artists are easy to find.
A Gallery Built for Luxor’s Own Artists
The artist Dominique Navarro founded the gallery. Cairoscene presented it as Luxor’s first contemporary art gallery, in a city where, by its account, the art school was at South Valley University but local artists had nowhere to exhibit, and it reported 19 artists at the grand opening, among them Alaa Awad. In 2020 the gallery moved to a space across from the Colossi of Memnon. By its own count it showed more than 75 artists over its lifetime, with workshops, field trips and concerts alongside the exhibitions, and it drew local families, art students, Egyptologists and travellers.
The Artists You Would Have Met
- Alaa Awad paints murals that borrow the visual language of ancient Egyptian art for contemporary subjects, including the revolution. The gallery’s farewell calls him the main reason it existed.
- Sara El Okally made animal sculptures from recycled rubber and bronze.
- Ahmed Abd El Fattah is known for portraits and figurative work.
- Mohamed Ibrahim shapes stone and clay into forms that echo pharaonic tradition.
One of its last exhibitions turned toward the countryside. “Sa’idi Spirit”, in April 2025, brought together ten Upper Egyptian artists around rural identity, as reported by Luxor Times.
Why It Closed
In its farewell, the gallery said a neighbouring business expanded into the garden area it rented, which it used for its entrance and workshops, and that its landlords did not step in. It also described a business that never grew: income went to rent, taxes, staff and events, some commissions were lost when buyers dealt directly with artists, and online sales slowed. Navarro wrote that the gallery is not over and that she hopes to return at a new location.
Where to See Contemporary Art in Luxor Now
The farewell pointed visitors to the Faculty of Fine Art at Luxor University, Alaa Awad’s studio in Gezira Garden, Mahmoud Salem Art Gallery, and spaces including Funtasia Cultural Centre, Art from People to People, Retro Spot Art Space, Wannas Art Café and Nut Art Hub.
For craft shopping nearby, see Caravanserai near Medinet Habu and our guide to where to shop in Luxor. For the tombs and temples you’ll pass on the way, see Tombs of the Nobles and the Valley of the Queens, and for the area as a whole, see Theban Necropolis.
