Nabeeha Mohamed | Dark Room

Nabeeha Mohamed (b. 1988, Cape Town)

The subjects of Nabeeha Mohamed’s whimsical paintings are all derived from her everyday life – vases of flowers in her parent’s home, her partner’s ashtray and cigarettes, portraits of both herself and her friends - but combined with her saturated and often jarring use of colour these subjects become somewhat strange and other-worldly.

Having grown up as one of very few women of colour in a predominantly white all-girls school in post-apartheid South Africa, there is a sense of searching in Nabeeha’s paintings. A searching and placing of her identity that was hushed in her childhood in an attempt to assimilate into white culture and society. She now celebrates these

aspects of her identity in her paintings - colour, boldness and strangeness take centre stage. But with a closer look there is often a hint of melancholy or menace – flowers are wilting, objects cast ominous blue shadows and animals are shown baring their teeth.

Nabeeha has exhibited in several group shows in Cape Town, and also Venice. In 2017 she participated in her first artist residency at Casa de Ilhabela (Ilhabela, Brazil) and she is currently working towards her first solo show to be exhibited next year.