Abusharia at Red Hill Gallery
SUDANESE
ARTIST BACK IN NAIROBI FOR HIS SOLO SHOW
By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 4 November 2018)
In the
mid-`1990s Nairobi saw a stream of Sudanese artists arrive and land at Paa ya
Paa Art Centre. Most of them were accomplished artists who had graduated from
Sudan University’s College of Fine & Applied Arts. They included artists
like El Tayeb Dawelbait, Yassir Ali, Elmur Salah, Salah Ammar and Abusharia
Abdul.
Abusharia
first came in 1994 and stayed as a PYP artist-in-residence for three years. He
came humbly, with just a back pack and a few art materials, recalls Phillda
Njau, who exhibited one of his early works during PYP’s recent Silent Art
Auction.
It was
Hellmuth Rossler-Musch who first met Abusharia in 1995 and apparently fell
under the artist’s artistic spell from then until now. That’s one way of
explaining how Hellmuth just mounted a one-day exhibition at his Red Hill Gallery
filled with the magical artworks of one of the most prolific Sudanese artists
who once lived and thrived in Nairobi.
‘The
Collection – 1995 –2015’ is a solo exhibition of nearly 40 artworks by
Abusharia. All but five of them belong to Hellmuth who is not only an avid art
collector and gallerist. He is also a wonderful curator who hung this
exhibition with loving care and beautifully proportioned thought. What’s more,
the forty are not the totality of Hellmuth’s collection of Abusharia’s art. But
it’s sufficient to confirm that the 52 year old Sudanese painter originally
from Omdurman is a marvelous modernist artist who manages to blend elements of
his indigenous culture with Western influences to create a wholly unique and
identifiable style.
Hellmuth
began acquiring Abusharia’s art in 1995 but the collection actually includes
one painting from 1993 when the artist was still based in Khartoum. His works
are most recognizable for his exquisitely blended use of colors which is often
combined with iconic images from his home.
But even
when he experiments with various colors, or even with just one color, he has a
special something that has to do with the quality of his brushwork and his
harmonizing of shapes that invariably leave one calmed by their beauty and
satisfied even when one doesn’t see some profound social statement in his art.
Often
working in mixed media, this exhibition reflects a wide range of techniques and
multimedia. He often paints with watercolors on paper. But then he also has
works conceived with acrylics on canvas or plywood. The largest painting in The
Collection is primarily created with oil paints and it is darker than all the
rest. Nearly half the piece is almost black although blended with hues of blue
and cloudy grey. It’s a somber work with the dark side counter-balanced with
iconic Sudanese designs and one forlorn face. The face might be that of the
artist who says he prefers that his art contributes to peace of mind as well as
peace in the world and particularly peace in his homeland Sudan.
But black
doesn’t only signify sadness for Abusharia. He’s got several beautiful black
and white works in this show. One is of a charming city filled with a geometric
style of architecture, and walls made of mud. Each house seems aglow with an
inner light that makes the painting luminous despite its being all black and
white.
Abusharia
currently lives in Kampala but he came to Nairobi especially for the opening of
Hellmuth’s show. He was delighted with all that he saw, especially as he hasn’t
had a solo exhibition in Nairobi for quite some time.
Abusharia’s
artworks have been exhibited and collected all over the world.
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