Secret Place, a Multimedia Installation by Artist Rehab El Sadek at the Elisabet Ney Museum June 18–July 31

Join Austin Parks and Recreation for the Opening Reception for Secret Place, a provocative new exhibition by multi-media artist Rehab El Sadek, on Saturday, June 18 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Elisabet Ney Museum, 304 East 44th St. At the opening, visitors can experience an immersive installation while viewing never-before-seen artifacts belonging to Elisabet Ney. This all-ages event is free and open to the public.

Secret Place will be on display June 18 through July 31. The exhibit is a site-specific installation created to be a meditation on the internal solitude inherent to the immigrant experience. El Sadek utilized sculpture, photography and everyday objects to create this body of work. The fragility of individual and collective memories is demonstrated through installation materials in various states of aging and deterioration. El Sadek’s heritage is also reflected in some of the materials, especially those used in Egypt for healing, protection, and conservation.

The experience of Secret Place starts in the gallery and continues within other parts of the museum where El Sadek curated some of Ney’s personal objects from the archives not typically on display. These interventions throughout Ney’s historic studio were a way for the artist to contemplate parallels and differences between her own life and that of Elisabet Ney. After all, they both immigrated to the United States – and eventually Texas – after having established artistic practices abroad. Both had to start from scratch and relaunch their careers in a new country. 

Rehab El Sadek is a US-based Egyptian artist whose been exhibiting internationally for 30 years. El Sadek’s work has been exhibited in venues such as: L.A. Freewaves, The Geffen Contemporary Art at MOCA (Los Angeles, CA), Sharjah Biennial, Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie (Mali), Gasworks Gallery (London), Borusan Contemporary (Istanbul), Ashkal Alwan (Beirut), Nairobi National Museum (Kenya), Mexic-Arte Museum (Austin), and The Women's Museum (Dallas). 

In 2009, El Sadek was one of 88 female artists included in “REBELLE: Art and Feminism 1969-2009,” an extensive 40-year survey of feminist artwork organized by the Museum voor Moderne Kunst (Arnhem, Netherlands). She held a one-year appointment in 2017 as the City of Austin’s first Artist-in-Residence, investigating social and environmental issues that were embedded in the City’s Watershed Protection Department. In 2020, her MacDowell artist residency was supported by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation Fellowship.