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Mo El Kadey

@themomanshow

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Primitive Surrealist artist. Founder of The Street Gallery London. Creator of ADHD and Me Collection. Original works for sale. DM for enquiries.

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We had a chat with Mo, founder of The Street Gallery, who was down at Portobello Market 🎨✨

We loved hearing about his art, where he gets his inspiration from, and his passion for showcasing other artists too. Make sure to check out his work and give him a follow! @thestreetgallery25 @themomanshow taken in Portobello Road Market by @themomanshow

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a month ago

What happens after the exhibition, when the adrenaline disappears?

ADHD, emotional dysregulation, and the strange void nobody really talks about.

Watch the video.

#ADHD #EmotionalDysregulation #ADHDAwareness #Neurodivergent #artistlif taken in Portobello Market, Notting Hill by @themomanshow

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9 hours ago

“The Caffeine Oracle”

After two weeks of painting nothing but coffee cups, I went to the Caffeine Oracle.
“Dear Oracle, give me a coffee strong enough that two will finally be enough.”
“And please don’t fuck me up like the Sniff Oracle did.”
“I escaped that because I wanted to escape.”
“But coffee?
I don’t want to escape coffee.”

She looked at me.
“This magical brown thing, nearly as brown as your skin…”

Wait.
Endgame?
Does an addictive personality actually have an endgame?
Or do you just jump from one addiction to another like a tree monkey?
Someone once called me an exotic monkey in the land of wild coconuts.
That’s funny.
I am funny.

Wait.
Is her nose a chessboard?
Why is everything a fucking chessboard?
Focus, man.
This is exactly why I need more than two coffees a day.

The Oracle smiled.
“You fool, there is no magical coffee.”
“Your choices become your suffering.”
“So live it.”

But what is the solution?
A snort?
A gun?
A clear job?
I have none of them.
So here I am.
Fuck ADHD.
Fuck the medication.
Coffee, I’m diving in.
Till you give me a heart attack.

The Caffeine Oracle
30 × 30 cm
Acrylic on wood
Two Coffees a Day series
Part of the ADHD and Me Collection

— Mo El Kadey

#ADHDAndMe #CaffeineOracle #ContemporaryArt #NeurodivergentArt #mentalhealthart by @themomanshow

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a day ago

DEATH STROKE THAT NEVER BENDS

DO NOT BEND.
A useful instruction for glass,
cardboard,
and things afraid of impact.

Then comes Deathstroke.
Yes, that one.
DC Comics.
Keep your filthy interpretation to yourself.

He doesn’t bend.
That is the fantasy.

Humans do.

We bend because rigidity breaks.
We change shape because survival
is rarely a straight line.

Muscle, ligament, tissue, bone,
an architecture designed for movement.

So perhaps DO NOT BEND
belongs on the box,
not on the person inside it.

Let Deathstroke stay rigid.

I’d rather remain flexible enough
to survive the plot.

Death Stroke That Never Bends
48 × 30 cm
Acrylic on wood
Part of the ADHD and Me Collection
Comic-book style

— Mo El Kadey

#MentalHealthAwareness #Neurodiversity #PrimitiveSurrealism #moelkadey taken in Notting Hill by @themomanshow

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4 days ago

Thanks, Magdy @magdymusicofficial @cairoson , for my present, Cairo Son. I can’t tell you how much I love this T-shirt. It honestly feels like it was made for me. I mean… I am a Cairo son after all.

Go check out Magdy’s music and show him some love. He also offers private music lessons, so if anyone is interested in learning with him, drop him a DM. I’ll add his Instagram below.

— Mo El Kadey

#CairoSon #IndependentMusic #MusicLessons #SupportArtists #TheStreetGallery taken in Portobello Market, Notting Hill by @themomanshow

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4 days ago

THE STREET GALLERY IS ONE YEAR OLD. 🎂

A year ago today, I started The Street Gallery at Ropewalk.

One year later, and somehow it feels like I’ve lived about ten years in between. 😂

But look where we are now: Portobello Road.

Still here. Still creating. Still growing.

I feel incredibly fortunate and blessed. Thank you to every artist, collector, supporter, friend, stranger, conversation, purchase, share and bit of encouragement that helped make The Street Gallery happen.

And because birthdays need presents…

30% OFF EVERYTHING, online and offline TILL Thursday 1/10/2026 .

Happy first birthday to The Street Gallery.

— Mo El Kadey

#TheStreetGallery #PortobelloRoad #LondonArt #SupportLivingArtists #artforeveryone taken in Portobello Road Market by @themomanshow

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6 days ago

THE FIRST COFFEE ON THE ROOFTOP

If the prison was a garden, I’d have a coffee shop.
If the stairs could take me somewhere, I’d take my coffee with me.
And if being a snake could change the rules, I’d become a fucking snake.

Anything to make two become three. Three become four. Four become five.

Because apparently I’m allowed two coffees a day.

It sounds so easy. Just two. As if my brain understands the word enough. As if stimulation is something I politely ask for, rather than something my brain spends all day hunting for.

Coffee was never just coffee. It was a little switch.

Wake up. Move. Think. Paint. Talk. Another espresso.

Now there’s medication and suddenly the loudest thought in my head is:

Two coffees a day.

For fuck’s sake.

Then this dude asks me, “Why do you always have an eye in your paintings?”

For fuck’s sake, man. I’m Egyptian.

Horus. Fatima’s eye. The evil eye. Hasad fi awad. Eyes everywhere. What do you want me to paint, a fucking pineapple?

Anyway. Back to the coffee.

I found quitting the sniff much easier than dropping the coffee. That’s the irritating part. Something as small and ordinary as an espresso has made me question how much of my life was me enjoying coffee, and how much was my ADHD brain quietly building its own little pharmacy.

So maybe the prison becomes a garden. Maybe I climb the stairs, become the snake, change the rules and find a rooftop coffee shop that doesn’t know about two coffees a day.

And I’ll sit there with coffee number three.

— Mo El Kadey

The First Coffee on the Rooftop
50 × 40 cm
Acrylic on canvas
ADHD and Me Collection

#ADHDAndMe #PrimitiveSurrealism #NeurodivergentArt #ContemporaryArt #moelkadey taken in Portobello Market, Notting Hill by @themomanshow

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11 days ago

TWO COFFEES A DAY

He said,
“Max, two coffees a day.”

Two coffees a day?

I’m a man who drinks
six or seven double espressos.

That’s about fourteen coffees a day,
Monday to Saturday.

And this imbecile
is telling me:

two coffees a day.

Two.
Coffees.
A day.

For fuck’s sake.

But maybe
I should have listened.

Because then came the tablets.
XL.
Elvanse.
Letters.
Numbers.
X, P, B, D, L,
whatever the fuck they give me
to make my brain
stay in the same place
long enough
to finish one thought.

And suddenly
all I could think about was:

two coffees a day.

Not my work.
Not money.
Not tomorrow.

Two coffees a day.

So naturally,
I had a third.

I got sick.

I didn’t feel well.
I didn’t sleep.
Then I slept.
Then I overslept.
Then I couldn’t sleep again.

At some point
I started wondering
why women wear hijab.

Then I knew why.

Then I forgot
what any of that had to do
with coffee.

Two coffees a day.

I can’t stop saying it.
I can’t stop painting coffee cups.

I dreamed I was scooping coffee
onto my bed,
sleeping in it,
licking it,
and somehow
it multiplied.

One coffee.
Two coffees.
Extra coffee.

Take the medication.
Feel sick.
Start again.

I don’t know
if the medication is helping,

because right now
the loudest thing
inside my head
isn’t ADHD.

It isn’t focus.

It isn’t even me.

It’s just some bastard
walking around in there
with a tiny espresso cup,

saying:

two coffees a day.

Two coffees a day.

Two coffees a day.

For fuck’s sake.

— Mo El Kadey

50 × 40 cm
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas
ADHD and Me Collection

#ADHDAndMe #PrimitiveSurrealism #ContemporaryArt #NeurodivergentArt #MoElKadey taken in Portobello Market, Notting Hill by @themomanshow

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13 days ago

Today reminded me why I keep doing this.

Painting properly on the street for the first time, out there with the work happening in front of people, was something else.

It wasn’t just about the painting. It was the conversations. The people who stopped, watched, asked questions, shared stories, laughed, opened up.

That’s the part I love.

Art somehow gives strangers permission to talk to each other. And today I heard stories I would never have heard if I’d stayed inside four walls.

There’s something empowering about that exchange. You give a little piece of yourself through the work, and somehow people give something back.

Today was a good fucking day.

— Mo El Kadey

#StreetArt #PaintingInTheStreet #LondonArtist #PortobelloRoad #TheStreetGallery taken in Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London. by @themomanshow

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14 days ago

With all respect, I’m going to make one thing very, very clear.

There is a massive difference to me between Jewish people and Zionism the same same as between Muslim and Extrem Islam idiopathic.

I have Jewish friends. Jewish brothers. People I love, respect and admire deeply. Antisemitism has no place in my work, my gallery or my life.

My opposition is to Zionism and to what I see being justified in its name.

If you support the killing of children, the destruction of families and the suffering of civilians, don’t buy my art.

I don’t want your MONEY.

My art comes from my heart, and I decide what that heart stands beside.

Free Palestine.
فلسطين حره

— Mo El Kadey

#FreePalestine #ArtForPalestine #ArtistsForPalestine #artwithpurpose taken in Little Venice, London by @themomanshow

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16 days ago

TAKE IT, COWARD

Take it, coward.

Be better.
Be thinner.
Be calmer.
Be easier to love.

Take it.

Maybe then
you’ll finally become
the version of yourself
everyone seems to be waiting for.

One pill.
One promise.
One more attempt
to make yourself acceptable.

Take it, coward.

The voice gets bigger.
The room gets smaller.
The whisper becomes a scream.

TAKE IT.
TAKE IT.
TAKE IT.

And somewhere
under all that fucking noise,

I’m still trying to hear
my own voice.

Take It, Coward
30 × 30 cm
Acrylic on canvas
GME Collection

— Mo El Kadey

#TakeItCoward #GMECollection #PrimitiveSurrealism #ContemporaryArt #MoElKadey taken in Little Venice, London by @themomanshow

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16 days ago

Egyptians are slowly taking over London… one market stall at a time. 🇪🇬😂

Met this brilliant Egyptian fashion designer at Portobello Market, bringing Egyptian heritage into her designs, and she’s linked up with Yassine, one of my favourite modern Egyptian artists.

Fashion, art, heritage and a little Egyptian invasion of London. 🇪🇬

— Mo El Kadey

#EgyptianDesign #PortobelloMarket #EgyptianArt #LondonFashion #EgyptianHeritage taken in Portobello Market, Portobello Road by @themomanshow

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17 days ago