57 - ‡ SALAH ELMUR (SUDANESE B.1966)

‡ SALAH ELMUR (SUDANESE B.1966) (I) UNTITLED XIV, 1998; (II) UNTITLED XVII, 1999 each mixed media on paper (i) 24.2 x 32.3cm; (ii) 24 x 32cm both unframed (2) Property from an Important International Collection Provenance Acquired from Circle Art Agency, Nairobi, Kenya Acquired from the above by a Private Collection, Nairobi, Kenya Literature Danda Jaroljmek, "THE EARLY YEARS IN NAIROBI: Salah Elmur Interview", Circle Art Gallery, October 7, 2020 Born in Khartoum, Salah Elmur is a prominent Sudanese painter, filmmaker, and illustrator whose art acts as a vivid repository for his homeland’s collective memory. Growing up along the banks of the Blue Nile, his imagination was shaped by the rich multiculturalism of Sudan, his mother’s delicate handicrafts, and the formal geometry of his father’s photography studio and hand-drawn maps. After studying graphic design at Sudan University, Elmur’s career took a sharp turn in the 1990s when his political cartoons led to his arrest and subsequent exile. Moving first to Kenya and later settling in Cairo, he has spent decades channelling the textures of the Sudanese landscape into a universally acclaimed practice. Today, as active conflict debases his home country and limits his return, his studio serves as a sanctuary where he archives a Sudan that is simultaneously historical, pastoral, and deeply personal. His work can be found in major collections worldwide, such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (Washington D.C), the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minneapolis, MN), the Zeitz MOCAA (Cape Town, South Africa), the Sharjah Art Museum (Sharjah, UAE), the Gandur Foundation for Art (Geneva, Switzerland), the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (Marrakech, Morocco) and the North Dakota Museum of Art (Grand Forks, ND). The artist’s solo exhibition Just as the Heart of a Mango is a Stone is currently taking place at the Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai.