Salah Elmur

Salah Elmur is a contemporary Sudanese painter, graphic designer, author, and filmmaker. He is currently based in Cairo, Egypt. Elmur studied Graphic Design at the College of Fine and Applied Art at Sudan University, Khartoum. Elmur’s artwork is composed of a fertile visual vocabulary that draws on scenes, situations and impressions recalled from his life, reaching back to childhood. Inspired by the many photographs he collected from his family’s photography studio, Elmur’s compositions emulate formal portraits, with additional elements that complement but also unsettle the mood of his paintings.

With a career spanning three decades, Elmur has exhibited in participated in group and solo shows in East Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and America. Elmur is also an acclaimed illustrator and filmmaker, having composed and illustrated numerous children’s books, and directed six short documentaries and fantasy films which have been shown at international film festivals. In 2018, Elmur was the subject of a major retrospective at the Sharjah Art Museum in the United Arab Emirates, called Fragrances of the Forest and Photos. This was followed the same year by Forests and Spirits at the Saatchi Gallery, London, showing alongside two luminaries of Sudanese modernism, Kamala Ishaaq, and Ibrahim El Salahi. Elmur’s artwork is collected widely and is included in the permanent collection of prestigious institutions including MOMA, New York; Pompidou Centre, Paris; MACAAL, Marrakech; The Sharjah Art Museum and the Sharjah Art Foundation in the United Arab Emirates.