Frightened Figures

Path-breaking artist Kamala Ibrahim Ishag has had a profound impact on debates around modernist art in Africa. Co-founder of the Crystalist group, which challenged traditional Sudanese aesthetic beliefs, Ishag's distinct artistic language explores reality and duplicity, the spiritual and the divine, as well as women’s subjugation and incarceration. Drawing inspiration from nature and Sudanese Zar rituals, Ishag’s drawings and paintings often feature distorted figures who reflect states of entrapment, evoking the mutable experiences of women inSudan, Africa and the global diaspora.