Norwegian-Sudanese artist Ahmed Umar’s body of work questions and explores the notion of identity, religion, and cultural values through several modes of artistic expression. He uses his personal experiences as tools to convey narratives not only about suppression and alienation but also about liberation and owning one’s own history.

Ahmed Umar (b. 1988, Sudan) lives and works in Oslo. He received his MFA degree in medium- and material- based art from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 2016. With a multidisciplinary practice, Umar uses a wide range of media, including complex sculptures and ceramics, large-scale textiles, graphical and photographic, and performance works. Through his practice and narrative, Umar has become an important figure and spokesperson for the queer community with Muslim backgrounds in Norway and Sudan.

Umar’s parents originate from Sudan, and he has spent his formative years in a religious Wahhabi community in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, although his family is practicing Sufism. The two branches of Islam are often contradictory in their doctrines and beliefs, and it is this notion that is reflected within Umar’s sculptural works: the Sufi prayer tradition of using chains and amulets, combined with Wahhabi usage of the knuckles of the right hand.

Umar has already exhibited at several important institutions in Norway and was a participant in the 22nd Biennale of Sydney. Umar’s works are in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Norway, Drammens Museum, and the City of Oslo Art Collection.

In 2023, Umar had the solo exhibition “Glowing Phalanges” at Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo. The exhibition was critically acclaimed and is subsequently showing at Bergen Kunsthall. This exhibition is currently on view and until January 7th, 2024. More information can be found here: https://www.kunsthall.no/en/

Umar was also nominated for the Lorck Schive Art Prize 2023. From 2024, Umar is scheduled to participate in seminal international cultural programs and exhibitions, which will be announced publicly in due course.

Monday Lectures is a public platform combining invited guest lecturers and professors and researchers of the faculty at KMD. Monday Lectures aim to create a diverse programme of lectures exploring a wide range of disciplines and research topics. Lectures typically take place Mondays 10:00 at the Knut Knaus Auditorium and are free and open to all.