For a first exhibition that offers the Kenian public the 25 paintings of the last ten years of the artist Mohamed Otaybi, Circle Art Gallery offers its first exceptional exhibition until July 30, 2022.
Sudanese-born Mohammed Abdella Otaybi left the Khartoum College of Fine and Applied Arts and began working as an artist in the powerful 1970s in Sudan. He was immersed in discussions about the cultural heritage and the Sudanese visual character of the Khartoum school at that time. Many of these discussions are still relevant in Sudan, where Africanism, Islam, Arabism and Sudanese identity are intertwined.
Long perceived and acclaimed as a powerful figure in Sudanese art, Mohammed Abdella Otaybi‘s pictorial language has developed throughout his career, merging his position and strength as a colorist. Themes of composition and embellishment and calligraphic structures populate his creations.
The layering of hues to render depth and vibrancy adds to the whimsical and illusory nature of his paintings, which reference a past. Mohammed Abdella Otaybi is also a well-known illustrator and cartoonist, and elements of his realistic and humorous methodology are frequently converted into his paintings.
Since the overthrow of the government in 2018 and the continued fighting and attempted overthrow in 2021, the Sudanese people have languished and expressed their desire for change and artists have been at the forefront of this activism. Mohammed Abdella Otaybi‘s delicate and heartfelt images of life, nature, music, and a heritage that combines Islamic imagery with a cutting edge multicultural lifestyle in Sudan, speak to and resonate with humans around the world.
In addition to holding independent exhibitions in Khartoum, North Africa and the Arab world from 1970 to the present, he has participated in international exhibitions including Sharjah Biennale, UAE, 1993; Modernism in Sudanese Art, British Museum, London in 2004; Sudan: Emergence of Singularities, P21 Gallery in London in 2017 and Khartoum Contemporary, Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi in 2017. His works are in the private and public collections of the National Museum in Sharjah, UAE.