Issam Hafiez (Sudanese, born 1959)
Absence, 2018
Signed ‘ISSAM 018’ (middle right)
Acrylic on canvas
99 x 99.4 cm
Ksh 300,000–400,000
(US$ 2,750–3,750)
Sold Ksh 328,720
Provenance: direct from the artist
Once a mural artist, now a notable painter and photographer, Issam Hafiez graduated from the College of Fine and Applied Arts, Khartoum in 1982. Over the years, Hafiez’s approach has taken a very individual detour from the technique-based training of the Khartoum College. Pushing the material and aesthetic qualities of paint and mark-making to extremes, Hafiez invests his works with a powerful urgency. Here he visualizes an emotional landscape, infused with both the pain of conflict and a depth of love, care and longing.
Hafiez has exhibited in selected group exhibitions in the UK, Egypt, Syria, the UAE, Eritrea, Uganda and Kenya. His work is included in several collections in Kampala, Khartoum, Cairo and Syria. His photographs can be found in the book Darfur and the Crisis of Governance in Sudan: A Critical Reader which was published by Africa World in 2008.