Born in 1930 in Omdurman, Sudan, Ibrahim El-Salahi’s life is one of art and social conscience intertwined. No one artist has been more instrumental in the development of a Sudanese, and further to that, Pan-African Modernism. The combination of African, Islamic and Western identities have allowed El-Salahi to create a distinct visual language that at once appears localised, yet universal. At S?2 London this October, there will be a presentation of El-Salahi’s work primarily focusing on his 82-part Life Diary (2014-2016), in which the artist gazes back on his own story. Depicting actual memories from his childhood together with imaginary scenes and forms from his own visions, Life Diary remains one of the artist’s key autobiographical creations, oscillating between fable, history and allegory.
