Hamed Nada was born in Cairo in 1924.  After graduating from the College of Fine Arts in Cairo in 1951, he taught art to elementary school children in an old neighborhood in Islamic Cairo, and was then awarded a residency in the new studio program in Luxor.  He taught painting at the College of Fine Arts in Alexandria from 1957-1960, and then travelled to Spain for a one year diploma program at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.  Upon his return from Spain, he was appointed as a professor of painting at the College of Fine Arts in Cairo, where he taught generations of artists from 1962 until his death.  Nada was an influential member of the Contemporary Art Group, dedicated to exploring folk subjects as a form of social criticism.  In addition to showing in numerous international and national exhibitions throughout the course of his career, Nada’s work was also featured in the biennials of Venice and Sao Paulo in the 1950s.  He suffered an untimely death, falling down a set of stairs during the famous Cairo blackout of 1990.