Amel Bashier’s gateway to freedom

Growing up between Saudi Arabia and Sudan, Amel Bashier needed exceptional determination to make it as a woman artist. She had few female role models during her breakthrough years on the Sudanese art scene, but a quest for self-expression urged her onward. After exhibitions in Khartoum, Sharjah, Nairobi, Cairo, Dubai, Paris, and London, Bashier’s contemplative paintings of women will debut in New York this spring at the Independent art fair, presented by Addis Fine Art. The artist, now based in France, portrays female figures who radiate strength and self-possession, traits that she saw in her close family and in her distant ancestors: the queens of ancient Nubia. In this interview, which has been translated from the original Arabic and edited for clarity, she discusses formative memories from her childhood, the feminist struggles that inspire much of her work, and the central message of peace explored in her recent paintings.