The sensation of Nubia

The Sensation of Nubia

30th July to 15th September 2023 (studio exhibition)

In 2020, Zaki Al-Maboren started a new series of paintings titled "The Sensation of Nubia." Now, they will be exhibited for the first time. About this series, the artist writes: "The rediscovery of temples, murals, reliefs, and sculptures in the northern Sudan in the Nubian area along the Nile – my 'homeland' – also brought new insights into rituals and customs. These new insights have revealed some wonderful secrets of Nubia and awakened old memories in me. Nubian art has its own visual language. To this day, the inhabitants of the region use symbols and colors that we observe throughout the Nile Valley. The cultural heritage is linked to the history of ancient Nubia, which was a homogeneous and independent state. It was the seat of one of the earliest civilizations in ancient Africa with its own rulers, customs, religion, and culture."

The newly discovered drawings and murals and the cultural richness of the region have inspired me and led to the series of paintings "The Sensation of Nubia." With my pictures, I want to draw attention to this impressive, pioneering, and original Nubian culture of North Africa, which laid the foundation for all the high civilizations of the Nile Valley.

In doing so, I use the symbols and colors that the Nubians used to decorate the walls of their houses, and I partially merge them with ancient murals from the history of the region. "My individual engagement with this cultural heritage created a new visual language and thus also led to a new form of presentation."

Zaki Al-Maboren was born in Artul (Sudan) in 1959. In 1983, he studied graphic design (BA) at the College of Fine and Applied Art in Khartoum. In 1987, he came to Germany for further studies, took language courses at the Goethe-Institut Iserlohn, and settled in Kassel. Zaki Al-Maboren received a scholarship from the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation and studied at the University of Kassel. In 1993, he completed his studies with a Magister Artium (M.A.) in Art History and Political Science. Since 1993, Zaki Al-Maboren has been working as a freelance artist in Kassel. The thematic focus of his works is on symbols and myths of the Muslim and Christian religions. With his outsider's perspective, he highlights what connects and separates, creating his own mythological symbolism. From the beginning of his work, he held numerous exhibitions and workshops in various European countries, as well as Asia, North America, and Africa. In addition, he participated in various international symposia, received several awards and honors.