Sudanese artist Sannad Shreef explores vulnerability in Indigo Hypoxia exhibition

Sudanese artist Sannad Shreef’s paintings are dreamlike, elongated, colourful figures with black dotted parts.

The figures are obscured in abstraction to reflect inner states.

An artwork titled The Past Won’t Leave My Room depicts a quiet, restrained sadness with a hand hiding parts of the face, and black dots stream from the eyes like tears.

This is one of the pieces that Shreef is showing at his solo exhibition titled Indigo Hypoxia. The exhibition features 12 paintings, a puppet installation, and a live painting.

The exhibition, which runs from July 2 to 23 at the Goethe-Institut Nairobi, explores internal experiences of vulnerability, identity, memory, transformation, isolation, and the fragile relationship between the body and the mind.

He explains that the exhibition’s title blends 'hypoxia', which means a lack of oxygen, while 'indigo' evokes depth and introspection.

Together, they represent a condition in which perception changes and familiar experiences are uncertain.

“Indigo Hypoxia is about a space between presence and absence, where emotion exists before words. Rather than telling a story, the exhibition invites viewers into a psychological landscape shaped by colour, form, and silence,” Shreef explains.

The exhibition features blue figures set against a purple environment. He uses colours to elicit emotions in which the figures exist while placing them in the in-between states of protection and vulnerability.

The dots, he says, create rhythm and repetition while referring to order inside chaos. Even though it is a repetitive style, their meaning changes depending on each work.

Shreef says that he approached the exhibition with the mediums of painting, textile installation and live performance because no single medium could explore the ideas on their own. 

“Painting captures stillness, textiles introduce physical presence, and performance allows the work to breathe through time and movement,” he says.

Indigo Hypoxia was inspired by his reflections on emotional states and moments that are difficult to explain. One of the challenges, he discloses, is to accept ambiguity and allow the work to be open to interpretation. 

He hopes viewers will slow down, spend time with the work and leave with questions.

He also hopes the exhibition sparks conversations about perception, emotional vulnerability, identity, and art's ability to communicate experiences that words cannot express in their entirety.

Indigo Hypoxia is part of Networks of Belonging, a series of exhibitions organised by the Goethe-Instituts in Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia, together with the Goethe Centres in Uganda and South Sudan, to support Sudanese artists living in exile across East Africa.

Following an open call, five artists were selected for the initiative: Hussein Merghani Hussein in Addis Ababa, Juma Moris in Juba, Hamza Tirab in Kampala, Mohamed Ibrahim in Kigali and Sannad Shreef in Nairobi.

The initiative responds to the displacement of Sudanese artists following the ongoing civil war by fostering artistic networks, professional exchange and sustainable structures of inclusion.

The participating artists received production support to create new work for the exhibition series.

Although the Goethe-Institut in Khartoum has been closed since 2023, its cultural programmes continue to be coordinated from Cairo through virtual and in-person opportunities for Sudanese artists and cultural practitioners to collaborate and exchange ideas.

The Networks of Belonging exhibitions are taking place in East Africa between July and November 2026.

Photos: Courtesy