Mahmoud Elmardi is a Sudanese visual artist and novelist born in 1988 in the city of Khartoum, more precisely in Bahri, a region known for its cultural richness and ancient history. From a young age, Elmardi was influenced by Bahri's vibrant and diverse environment, which played an integral role in the development of his artistic talent and unique style.
Elmardi continued his higher education in visual arts, earning a bachelor's degree in painting from the College of Fine and Applied Arts, Sudan University of Science and Technology in 2018. His formal education, combined with his personal experience and varied professional background, has enriched her artistic perspective, allowing her to explore and integrate diverse elements into her work.
Outside of his studies, Elmardi has worked in several artistic and technical fields, including in screen printing from 2010 to 2017 and in graphic design from 2020. He has also gained practical experience in the dental industry as a technician, which refined his attention to detail and precision, qualities which are reflected in his artistic works.
Elmardi is recognized for his distinctive style which combines abstraction and symbolism figurative painting His works, which include paintings like “Cities of Boredom,” “Blue in Travel,” and “Old Tree,” explore themes such as collective memory, identity, belonging, and the interplay between tradition and modernity. His ability to integrate elements of his immediate environment into his art, such as the town of "Bahri" and the Sudanese landscapes, allows him to create works that are both personal and universal.
In addition to his work in visual arts, Elmardi is an accomplished writer. He has published two novels, "Secret of the Chisel" in 2022, which won the Free Publication Prize and was selected for the long list of the Nirvana cultural competition in Sudan, and "The Lost in the Mango Orchard" in 2023, which received third prize in a literary competition and was published for free. Elmardi's Third novel is coming in 2025. title is “The Walls of Guernica.” This novel has not been published yet and is expected to achieve great successes.These novels, like his pictorial works, explore themes of displacement, memory and the quest for identity.
Elmardi has also been honored for his artistic contributions, including winning the Katara Prize for Fine Arts in 2022 in Qatar. One of his paintings was chosen as the official cover for the novel “Cities of Boredom” by Palestinian writer Nader Manhal, 2024 Elmardi won in the Arab Union for Culture Award 2024 , and Peru Biennial Selected Elmardi the be in list of artists selected for exhibition to be held in the city of Lima, Peru 2024 . cementing his position as an influential and respected visual artist.
Mahmoud Elmardi continues to live and work, dividing his time between Sudan and Egypt, where he actively participates in exhibitions and book fairs, such as the Cairo International Book Fair. His work, imbued with the cultural richness of his Sudanese heritage, makes him an important voice in the contemporary art scene, offering a unique perspective on issues of identity and belonging through his paintings and literary narratives.
