SHERIN GUIRGUIS - Into the Lake of Fire (ⲉ̀ϧⲟⲩⲛ ⲉ̀ϯⲗⲩⲙⲛⲏ ⲛ̀ⲭ̀ⲣⲱⲙ)

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is pleased to announce _Sherin Guirguis: Into the Lake of Fire (ⲉ̀ϧⲟⲩⲛ ⲉ̀ϯⲗⲩⲙⲛⲏ ⲛ̀ⲭ̀ⲣⲱⲙ)_, a solo exhibition envisioning Indigenous Egyptian language revitalization. The exhibition runs from September 12 to October 24, 2026. An opening reception will be held Saturday, September 12, from 4-7 pm. Egyptian American artist Sherin Guirguis presents a series of monoprints created during her recent Sam Francis Foundation "Call to Dream" Fellowship in Paris, France. Drawn from research with heritage objects held in Parisian institutions, the series explores cultural memory, honoring ancestral languages at risk of being forgotten. The exhibition's title, _Into the Lake of Fire (ⲉ̀ϧⲟⲩⲛ ⲉ̀ϯⲗⲩⲙⲛⲏ ⲛ̀ⲭ̀ⲣⲱⲙ)_, references a transformative passage from the ancient text _Spells of Coming Forth by Day_, long mistranslated by European archaeologists as _The Book of the Dead_. Through her engagement with Egyptian archives, ritual objects, and community, Guirguis rethinks systems of representation, preservation, and access. By re-centering the perspectives of Indigenous Egyptians (RemenKeemi, "People of the Black Soil"), the work exposes the gaps produced through colonial knowledge systems and Egyptomania, creating space for reclamation and self-empowerment. Repetition—both inherent to monoprint and central to Guirguis' practice—functions as a formal strategy and ritual of cultural remembrance. Delicate patterns and glyphs are assembled, transferred, and transformed through successive impressions, each gesture generating new forms and meanings. Sacred symbols representing nature, protection, and divinity recur throughout the compositions, evoking the rites of ancestral wisdom. Their fluid patterns echo the movement of the Nile, translating geological, spiritual, and cosmological relationships into expressive visual forms. Color and materiality hold significance as Guirguis employs pigments historically used in Egyptian art and architecture. Gold, faience blue, carnelian red, and ochre create chromatic fields to dissolve the boundaries between water and fire, sky and land, past and future. With these inks luminously layered on silky matte black paper, the works simultaneously evoke the velvet-lined display cases of museums and the mythologies of a fertile abyss. Through the collective of repetitive gestures, _Into the Lake of Fire (ⲉ̀ϧⲟⲩⲛ ⲉ̀ϯⲗⲩⲙⲛⲏ ⲛ̀ⲭ̀ⲣⲱⲙ)_, becomes a mnemonic device celebrating RemenKeemi histories while imagining new possibilities for their continued presence and future.