"For me, art is not just a means of self-expression but a way to connect with others, provoke thought, and foster empathy."
Dar Al Naim
Dar Al Naim is a Sudanese-Spanish artist currently based in Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. Her creative practice draws on her nomadic life—split between Sudan, Spain, Italy, the UK, and Tanzania—and reflects an identity shaped by the diaspora. Working across various mediums, including printmaking, drawing, painting, and collage, she explores the human condition, often focusing on the struggles faced by those enduring war, injustice, and exile.
Trained at Oxford Brookes University in printmaking and bookbinding, Dar Al Naim blends traditional methods with experimental techniques to forge a distinctive visual language. She employs linocuts, monotypes, stamps, and recycled materials, delving into existential questions that transcend differences of gender, class, or origin.
Her work often stands at the intersection of figuration and abstraction, frequently depicting female figures gazing toward uncertain horizons—symbols of both a quest for belonging and the resilience of human spirit. Guided by a poetic, sometimes metaphorical approach, she creates compositions where repeated shapes and layered imagery question identity, memory, and freedom of expression.
Since her first solo exhibition, IMPULSE, at the Old Fire Station Gallery in Oxford in 2012, Dar Al Naim has participated in numerous group shows throughout Africa, Europe, and beyond. Her residencies in places such as Casablanca and Arusha have fueled her reflection on existence, resulting in series like Herstory, Humanness, and Emotional Baggage Exposed. Regularly featured in international publications, her work invites viewers to ponder the fluid boundaries between self and other, offering an open dialogue on identity in a perpetually shifting world.