The work of Olfet Agrama spans four decades depicting people, landscapes and still life in the Middle East, Europe and the United States. The Inside/Outside Gallery's current show (Oct-Nov 2010), "Swimming Up the Nile,) includes over 25 works from her paintings on cultures of Africa and North Africa. Click the first image below, then use the right-side arrows to scroll through.

Educated at Cairo University with a Bachelor of Arts, Olfet Agrama received a Master's in English Literature from UCLA and studied art at the UCLA Art Department Extension, and later at the Brentwood Art Center 2002-2003. Ms. Agrama has participated in artist workshops in Provence, France from 1999-2008, and in Mojacar, Spain, from 1990-2002.

Her solo shows include The Oaks Gallery, Ojai, California 2003; Delphos Art Gallery, Mojacar, Spain 2004; Danny Art Deco Gallery, Paris, France 2005; and The Oaks Gallery, Ojai, California, 2006. She has participated in group exhibitions, The Tenth International Art Festival, Los Angeles 2002; Peace Show, Nagasaki, Japan 2003; International Lantern of the East show, Pyong Teak, Korea 2003; the LELA group show at the Modern Art Gallery 2004; and the International Association of Women in the Arts, Madrid, 2008.

Artist Statement

"I was born in Cairo, Egypt and lived there for the first twenty-five years of my life. At the age of fourteen I started taking private lessons in art taught by an Italian academician. I rebelled against the strict rules of the academy from the beginning, but I always loved to paint and continued to take classes through the years in all the different countries I lived in.

"My life has been very nomadic; after Egypt I lived and studied in the United States, lived in Lebanon for four years, in Italy for eight, in England for one year and then back to the United States. At the moment I divide my time between Los Angeles and Paris.

"I love bright colors, and my favorite artists are the Fauves - the wild ones - Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, Maurice Vlamick, Raol Dufy and Georges Braque. Like the Fauves, I paint nature in my own bright palette. Brown trees and gray houses take on all the colors of the rainbow. My paintings reflect an optimistic view of the world."

ARTWORK BY OLFET AGRAMA