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Kamala Ibrahim Ishag

Contemporary artist (Sudan), Royal College of Art

A pioneering modern and contemporary artist with a career spanning over 60 years, Kamala Ibrahim Ishag is one of the most important female artists working today on the African continent, in Khartoum, Sudan. 

Ishag (b. 1939) was amongst the first women artists to graduate from the College of Fine and Applied Art in Khartoum in 1963. She followed this with studies at the Royal College of Art in London (1964-69). 

Ishag has been a prominent feminist and influential teacher for decades, and is known for co-initiating various artistic movements since her time studying in the UK, including the Crystalists Group, which defied the conventional perspective of a male-dominated society. 

In 2019, Ishag was awarded the prestigious Principal Prince Claus Award for Culture, and in 2020 she participated in the Lahore Biennial, Lahore, Pakistan. Her work is held in international collections including The Jordan National Museum of Fine Art, Sharjah Art Foundation, Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC and Museum of Modern Art, New York.