Issam Hafiez (Sudanese, born 1959)
Untitled, 2005
Signed ‘Issam 2005’ (lower right)
Oil on canvas
87 x 88 cm
Ksh 180,000-220,000
(US$ 1,850-2,250)
Sold Ksh 258,280
Provenance: private collection
Once a mural artist, now an established painter and photographer, Issam Hafiez graduated from the College of Fine and Applied Arts, Khartoum in 1982. Over the course of his practice Hafiez’s approach has taken a detour from the technique based training of the Khartoum School. In this work, Hafiez has used very loose, minimal strokes to complicate and anthropomorphise his painted tree, so that the viewer can question whether they are seeing a trunk or a body.
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.