Ibrahim El-Salahi is one of the most important living African artists and a key figure in the development of African Modernism. His work reflects an entire century with its ruptures, hopes and claims. El-Salahi grew up in Omdurman, Sudan and studied at the Slade School in London. On his return to Sudan in 1957, he established a new visual vocabulary which arose from his own pioneering integration of Sudanese, Islamic, African, Arab and Western artistic traditions. Known for work that combines elements of Arabic calligraphy and African ornament and sculpture, El-Salahi was a leading figure of the Khartoum School, an art movement concerned with the production of a new Arab-African national aesthetic following Sudan’s independence in 1956. The artist has also described his paintings of this period as "things that had been created and that appeared to me and I reproduced them".
Ibrahim El-Salahi (b.1930, Omdurman, Sudan), El-Salahi lives and works in Oxford, UK.
Recent exhibitions include: Behind the Mask, Vigo Gallery, London, UK (2024); Ibrahim El-Salahi: Pain Relief, Kunsthalle, Zürich, Switzerland (2023); The Milk of Dreams, The Fifty-Ninth Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2022); Ibrahim El-Salahi: Pain Relief, The Drawing Centre, New York, UK (2022); Ibrahim El-Salahi: Pain Relief, Tegnerforbundet, Oslo, Norway and Hastings Contemporary, Hastings, UK (2022); Reflections: Contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa, The British Museum, London, UK (2021); Into the Night: Cabaret and Clubs in Modern Art, Barbican, London, UK (2019); A Sudanese Artist in Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (2018); Making and Unmaking, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK (2016); Ibrahim El-Salahi: A Visionary Modernist, Tate Modern, London, UK (2013); Ibrahim El-Salahi: A Visionary Modernist, Sharjah Art Foundation, United Arab Emirates (2012); Interventions & Sajjil, Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2010).
In 2013, Ibrahim El-Salahi became the first African artist to be given a full retrospective at Tate Modern. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, US; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, US; The National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, US; The British Museum, London, UK; Tate Modern, London, UK; The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK; Newark Museum, Newark, UK; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; The National Gallery, Berlin, Germany and many others.
