Raghad Elwali | Artist at Mondoir

Nationality: Sudanese

Discipline: painting

Based in: Dubai, AE

Biography

I am Raghad Elwali, a painter and multidisciplinary artist from Khartoum, Sudan. My background in fine art began in childhood, shaped by a creative family and an early fascination with painting, drawing, and visual storytelling. I remember buying cheap watercolors from the store next to my childhood home and painting the trees in the backyard, slowly building a private world through color, image, and imagination. As I grew older, art became more than a hobby; it became a habit, then a language, then a core part of my identity. My work is influenced by culture, memory, emotion, history, and the ability of art to express what words often cannot. Through painting, design, and writing, I create visual worlds that reflect both personal experience and larger questions of identity, heritage, and existence.

Artist Statement

I explore themes of Afro-futurism, culture, inner worlds, wonderland, and conceptual design through painting. Inspired by artists such as Basquiat and Klimt, I am drawn to symbols, shapes, and figures as forms of storytelling. Through my work, I aim to depict different states of being, psychological complexity, and the worlds we create for ourselves when reality feels too limited.

Education

I have studied History briefly at Cardiff University, and that influenced some of my artworks.