From The Nation/written by Ali Gharib

One of the works that will appear prominently in the Egyptian artist Ganzeer’s first New York solo show today has already been displayed to any of the thousands who attended one of this fall’s anti-police brutality protests. It’s a silk-screened print in yellow and blue, with a picture of Eric Garner being choked by an NYPD officer. Along the side, bold lettering reads “BE BRUTAL.” The mock recruiting poster carries contact information at the bottom: “NYPDKILLS.COM / 212—KILLPEOPLE.”

Mohamed Fahmy, 32, who goes by Ganzeer, or “bicycle chain,” achieved international fame during the uprisings in Egypt. But don’t pigeonhole him as just an artist of the revolution—though his work has always been political, he was producing pieces years before “Tahrir Square” was on the tip of everyone’s tongue. And though his perhaps most famous piece, a huge mural of a tank facing off with a bicyclist under Cairo’s 6th of October Bridge, was a masterwork of street art, don’t limit him to that label either: a graphic designer by trade, street art only constitutes a tiny portion of his oeuvre.

Read more at The Nation