Nazli Madkour is an Egyptian visual artist and writer, born in Cairo on 25 February 1949, where she continues to live and work. Although she did not receive a conventional academic education in fine arts, she has developed a distinguished artistic career spanning more than four decades. Madkour initially pursued an academic and professional path in economics and political science. She graduated from the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University in 1971, later earning a diploma in management and a Master’s degree in Political Economy from the American University in Cairo. Before dedicating herself fully to art, she worked as a researcher and economic expert in national and international institutions. In 1981, she left her professional career in economics to concentrate entirely on her artistic practice. She pursued independent artistic studies under prominent Egyptian artists, including Mostafa El Razzaz, Farghali Abdel Hafiz, and Margo Veillon. She also studied art history at the American University in Cairo and received a certificate in artistic studies from Studio Arts College International in Florence in 1982. Since 1982, Madkour has presented more than forty solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions in Egypt and internationally. Her work has been exhibited across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and North America. Her practice moves between abstraction and figuration, drawing its principal inspiration from nature, landscape, memory, and women. Through richly textured and multilayered surfaces, she creates compositions that balance geometric structure with spontaneity, stillness with movement, and material density with lyrical colour. While her visual sources remain closely connected to the Egyptian environment, her artistic language addresses broader human experiences. Earth, plants, flowers, geological formations, bodies, and architectural structures are transformed into inner landscapes shaped by memory and emotion. Alongside her visual practice, Madkour has contributed significantly to research and writing on women and the arts in Egypt. She is the author of Women and Art in Egypt, first published in Arabic in 1989 and later issued in English. In 2005, she illustrated a limited-edition publication of Naguib Mahfouz’s Arabian Nights and Days for the Limited Editions Club in New York. The original works were first exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., before travelling to several international venues. Madkour has also served in important cultural and institutional roles, including membership of the Fine Arts Committee at Egypt’s Supreme Council of Culture and several national and international art juries. In recognition of her long artistic contribution, she received the Egyptian State Excellence Prize in the Arts in 2025. In 2026, the Supreme Council of Culture honoured her as an Icon of Success.