Shalabia Ibrahim (b. 1944, Monufia, Egypt) is a self-taught Egyptian artist widely recognized for her spontaneous and imaginative visual language rooted in memory, folklore, and rural life along the Nile. She began drawing as a teenager and later developed her artistic practice after marrying Syrian painter Nazir Nabaa, who encouraged her to pursue artistic creation and exhibition.
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Working primarily in watercolour, pastel, and mixed media, Ibrahim employs minimal lines and open colour fields to create poetic compositions populated by symbolic female figures, animals, and elements drawn from myth and village life. Her works frequently portray women as archetypes of fertility, renewal, and connection to the land, reflecting narratives inspired by her rural upbringing and the folklore traditions of the Nile region.
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Since the early 1970s, Ibrahim has exhibited extensively across the Middle East and Europe. Her artworks are held in important regional and private collections, including the Dubai Collection, the Museum of Fine Arts in Damascus, the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts in Amman, as well as notable private holdings such as the Chakkour Collection including and the Atassi Foundation.
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Through a practice defined by instinctive mark making and narrative imagination, Shalabia Ibrahim has established a distinctive voice within modern Arab art. Her works continue to resonate through their expressive simplicity, celebrating memory, femininity, and the enduring mythology of everyday life.