Khaled Hafez creates work that explores changing national and cultural identity in an unstable era. He is part of a generation of Egyptians who collectively have one foot in tradition and another in the larger globalized world. His paintings, mixed-media works, and collage-like videos straddle perceived barriers between East and West. In them, Hafez layers ancient Egyptian forms with images of modern Cairo and international pop culture iconography, creating hybrids that hint at the core of contemporary Egyptian identity. As legend and memory collide with icons of pop culture, advertising, current events, and a dose of irony, Hafez’s compositions become composite worlds of his own making.