about the artist

Makary is a Canadian-Egyptian painter residing and working from Ottawa, Canada. He studied Fine Arts at OCAD University (BFA) and Art History (MA) at the University of Toronto. Alongside developing his drawing and painting skills, Makary has trained for the last eleven years under several disciples of Isaac Fanous and was discipled under Seham Guirguis, assistant professor to Fanous. George has since produced hundreds of commissioned icons and numerous works for churches, chapels, monasteries, publications, exhibitions and individuals who commission him in the US and Canada, Egypt, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He has worked at several institutions, museums and schools as an instructor. He sees education and engagement, especially in the arts and humanities, as an integral component for the life of any community.

Projects

• St Mary St Moses Abbey, Corpus Christi, Texas, 2016- Processional icons

• St Mary St Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church, Mississauga- 2018, Steeple Chapel

• St Catherine Coptic Chapel (Windle House), Toronto, 2018

• Assistant Iconographer- St Maurice and St Verena Coptic Orthodox Church Toronto (Main Church and Anastasis Chapel) 2017-2020, St Moses and St Katherine Coptic Church Toronto (2018), St John the Baptist Coptic Orthodox Church Miami (2019-2021)

• Museum Assistant - Coptic Museum of Canada, Aga Khan Museum

• Chapel of Hospitality, Toronto, 2020- Wall Paintings

• Chapel of Intercession, Toronto, 2021- Wall Paintings

• St Paul American Orthodox Church (collaborative), 2022 - Wall paintings

• St Mark and St Mary of Egypt Coptic Orthodox Church, Ottawa, (ongoing), Wall paintings

• St Mary and St Demiana Coptic Orthodox Convent, Georgia, 2023, Apse

the contemporary coptic school

In the 1950s, the late Dr Isaac Fanous was tasked by Pope Kyrillos the sixth (followed by Pope Shenouda III) to revive, reform, and standardize the iconography of the Coptic church. He was appointed chair of the art department of HICS in 1960, and in 1965 he received a scholarship from the Louvre to study restoration and iconography in Paris, largely under the renowned Leonid Ouspensky and Paul Evdokimov, who he would spend 2 years with. Upon his return to Cairo, Fanous launched a series of iconographic programs in Alexandria and Cairo. His work sought to strictly reflect the Biblical and liturgical theological language of the Church, whilst using Pharaonic art as a vehicle for that expression. He voided his work of any foreign influences, seeking to reform iconography into something that reflected the deep spirituality of the Pharaohs fulfilled by the boom of Christianity in Egypt under the church fathers. Thus the icon, through the use of the canons and visual methods re-established by Fanous, highlighted important focal points, transfigured by the use of light, bringing the viewer into full communion with every inch of the icon before them.

Between 1960 and 2002, Fanous would proceed to paint thousands of icons for over 40 churches in Egypt, England, Canada, the US, and France, training several disciples who continue to work until this day. Today many of his disciples continue to work, and Fanous’ paramount efforts have continued to inspire younger generations of iconographers to strive to in the liturgical tradition he revived while also encountering the burgeoning demand of the diaspora’s thirst for Tradition.