Gor Soudan (Kenyan, born 1983)
Imprints Lamu Door I, 2016
Unsigned with certificate of authenticity
Ink and graphite on washi paper
133.5 x 44 cm
Ksh 150,000-250,000
(US$ 1,550-2,550)
Sold Ksh 281,760
Provenance: direct from the artist
Gor Soudan’s practice, which includes drawing, sculpture and installation, shifts fluidly from the conceptual and philosophical to the physical and sensual. His works make reference to both the body and the landscape, reflecting on how histories of human agency are written on each.
Imprints Lamu Door I, which feels simultaneously monumental and intimate in its incredible detail, is the first, and most intensive, from a body of work in which Soudan engaged with architectural and natural surfaces through a process of rubbing with charcoal and graphite. In this piece, the revealed patterns from the Swahili door carvings were then mapped out by marking in ink to reveal implicit forms.
Soudan has held numerous solo exhibitions in Kenya, most recently: Imprints, Redhill Art Gallery, 2017 and Join the Dots, Circle Art Gallery, 2015. He has also exhibited in Tokyo (where he completed an artist residency in 2014), Freetown and London. His work is well collected: represented in the Backers Collection, Hara Museum and the Yoku Moku Collection, both in Tokyo; Iwalewa-Haus, Bayreuth; and many private collections internationally.