Mohamed Abdella Otaybi Sudanese, b. 1984

  • Lives and works in Khartoum
    Mohamed Abdella Otaybi graduated from the Khartoum College of Fine and Applied Arts and began working as an artist during... Mohamed Abdella Otaybi graduated from the Khartoum College of Fine and Applied Arts and began working as an artist during...

    Mohamed Abdella Otaybi graduated from the Khartoum College of Fine and Applied Arts and began working as an artist during the dynamic period of the 1970s, where his practice was immersed in debates about cultural heritage and visual identity. Otaybi’s painterly language has evolved over the years, using architectural structures, decorative motifs and calligraphic forms to echo the questions of cultural visual expression he finds so important. A gentle activist and a powerful colourist, Otaybi’s work captures a romantic hue of Sudanese life. His sensitive layering of colour brings a dreamlike quality to the mythological motifs he often refers to, and adds depth and vibration to his paintings. 

     

    Otaybi has long been recognised as an influential figure in contemporary Sudanese painting. As well as exhibiting regularly in Khartoum since 1970, he has shown in international group exhibitions including: The Forest and Desert School Revisited, Circle Art Gallery, 2022; East African Masters, Cromwell Place, London, 2022; Khartoum Contemporary, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi, 2017; Sudan: Emergence of Singularities, P21 Gallery, London, 2017; Modernism in Sudanese Art, British Museum, London, 2004; and the Sharjah Biennial, UAE, 1993. In 2022 his solo exhibition Mohamed Otaybi: The Lost Paradise was held at Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi. Otaybi’s work features in private and public collections including the National Museum in Sharjah, UAE. In 2018 he was the focus of the article ‘Masters we Need to Master’ in Collector Magazine published by Art Africa.

  • Works
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Um Keky Player, 2022
      Um Keky Player, 2022
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Displacement, 2021
      Displacement, 2021
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Desert and Jungle, 2021
      Desert and Jungle, 2021
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Playing Cat, 2021
      Playing Cat, 2021$ 3,440.00
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Untitled IV, 2021
      Untitled IV, 2021
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Untitled IV (Man and Cow horn), 2020
      Untitled IV (Man and Cow horn), 2020
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Cage Two, 2020
      Cage Two, 2020
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, She and the Camel, 2020
      She and the Camel, 2020
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Mother and Child, 2020
      Mother and Child, 2020
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, The Dervish (II), 2020
      The Dervish (II), 2020
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Two Fishes, 2020
      Two Fishes, 2020
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Untitled II (Bird Woman), 2019
      Untitled II (Bird Woman), 2019
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, The Dervish (I), 2019
      The Dervish (I), 2019
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Untitled XIII, 2019
      Untitled XIII, 2019
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Untitled V, 2019
      Untitled V, 2019
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Untitled II, 2019
      Untitled II, 2019
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Untitled I, 2019
      Untitled I, 2019
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Contry Woman, 2018
      Contry Woman, 2018
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Untitled III, 2018
      Untitled III, 2018
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, One Man Show, 2017
      One Man Show, 2017
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, The Planet, 2017
      The Planet, 2017
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Untitled XII, 2002
      Untitled XII, 2002
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Untitled VII, 2002
      Untitled VII, 2002
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, The Poet, 2021
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Untitled IX, 2019
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Mother and Child (II), 2013
    • Mohamed Abdella Otaybi, Untitled X, 2020
      Untitled X, 2020
  • Exhibitions
  • Art fairs