Ibrahim El-Salahi is a Sudanese artist painter and former politician and diplomat…

During the duration of his stay [in Sudan], he channeled calligraphy and elements of the Islamic culture that played a role in his everyday life. Trying to connect to his heritage, El-Salahi began to fill with symbols and marking of small Arabic inscriptions. As he became more advanced with incorporating Arabic calligraphy, the symbols began to produce animals, humans, and plant forms, providing more meaning to his artwork allowing viewers to connect to his work. El-Salahi learned to combine the European styles with the traditional Sudanese themes in his art, which evokes a transnational African-influenced surrealism.

El-Salahi was assistant cultural attaché at the Sudanese Embassy in London from 1969 to 1972, when he returned to Sudan as Director of Culture under Jaafar Nimeiri’s regime, then Undersecretary in the Ministry of Culture and Information until September 1975, when he was imprisoned without charge for six months for being accused of participating in an anti-government coup.

While imprison El-Salahi would use his 25 exercise minutes he received everyday to sketch out ideas for huge painting. He would secretly sketch and bury the small drawing into the ground to maintain his ideas. Ten years after being released from prison he self-exiled himself from the country and for some years worked and lived in Doha, Qatar, before settling in Oxford, England.