Wissam Fahmy [sometimes transcribed Wessam Fahmi] was born in 1939 in central Cairo’s Mounira neighbourhood, into an erudite family. She graduated in 1965 from the Leonardo da Vinci Art Institute in Cairo, a school founded in the 1930s by Italian official representatives. During her training, she notably met painter Sayed Abdel Rasoul (1917–1995), a regional pioneer of folk art. At the age of 24, after the birth of her two children, Randa and Karim, W. Fahmy fully devoted herself to her artistic practice with the support of her family and her husband, architect Ezz Eldin Fouad.

In the 1960s, her work was characterised by a series of portraits – of her family, Egyptian and Nubian women, men and children, as well as self-portraits – that combined a quest for realistic representation with a fascination for signs and symbols connected to both ancient and modern Egyptian history. In fataat nubia [Nubian Girl, 1963], W. Fahmy depicts a young woman among the forms of southern Egypt, its farming activities and its architectural and natural environment. Another work, cheikh al-balad (1963), received enthusiastic reviews from art critics. Simultaneously with her practice, from the 1960s onwards, W. Fahmy was involved in several artistic associations and unions, particularly the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Cairo [jam’ iyyat muhibbi al-funun al-jamila].

From the 1970s onwards, W. Fahmy continued her portraiture work but devoted most of her production to landscapes. Leaving plenty of room for abstract forms, this series was inspired by her numerous travels throughout the “sharq” [East/Orient]. From India to Morocco, with an impactful journey in Tunisia, the artist drew inspiration from the concept of the cradle of civilisation and the rich mosaic of traditional and religious cultures unique to these regions, seeking to explore the “essence of humanity”. Her work tunis [Tunisia, 1979] brings together the domes of mosques, the curves of vegetation and the mosaics adorning the floors of cathedrals, in a collision of shapes and colours. It was also at this time that W. Fahmy befriended painter Tahia Halim (1919–2003), an important figure in twentieth-century Egyptian art. In the 1970s, a series of works featuring the human figure emerged, such as sullum [The Stair, 1974], borrowing from surrealism without ever fully embracing it. Nonetheless landscapes, increasingly inhabited by abundant plant forms, accounted for most of her work until the end of her career, from the 1980s until the 2010s, when she gradually reduced the amount of time she devoted to her practice.

In both the 1989 Arabic version and the 1991 English version of the publication Women and Art in Egypt by Nazli Madkour, W. Fahmy is included in a list of twenty-four notable artists in the Egyptian art scene. In 2015, a monograph titled Artist of Orient [al-sharq al-funun], featuring a large scope of her work, was edited by the artist in collaboration with the Egyptian Lebanese publishing house [al-dar al-masryia al-lebnania]. In 2019, W. Fahmy worked with her daughter to develop two important retrospectives surrounding her work at Cairo Opera House and at the Zamalek Art Gallery. Her work is included in several private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art (Cairo, Egypt) and the Museum of Yugoslavia (Belgrade, Serbia).