Issam Abdelhafiez is an established Sudanese painter, illustrator and photographer. His work is inspired by the Sudanese people. He was born in 1959 in El-Zuma in northern Sudan, and he graduated from the College of Fine and Applied Arts, Graphic Department, in Khartoum in 1982. He first worked for a number of years in the 1980s for Sudanow magazine. After graduation he began his painting experience by criticising current trends, and he particularly focused on issues to do with representation and the socio-cultural context in which one can produce works of art. His experience and subsequent works have since developed through a number of phases. Issam now dedicates all his time to art and photography, working from his studio in Khartoum 2. He has held many exhibitions inside and outside of Sudan, and regularly collaborates with larger media and awareness projects and committees.

Issam has collaborated with Sudan Memory since 2019 to scan images from his photographic collections, some of these including more recent digital photographs as well as slides dating from the late 1970s up to early 1990s. Further to this, Issam has curated a collection focused around the Khartoum School art movement and influences of this, including artworks by a number of Sudanese artists that have been photographed by Issam. Issam has also contributed to a number of training and scanning activities by Sudan Memory, notably to record the archives of the College of Fine and Applied Arts in Khartoum.

A selection of Issam’s collections are available to view here. Please contact Issam directly for any further information on his collections and ongoing works.