Ekhlas, also known as Nafyar, is a BFA student in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota with an anticipated graduation date of May 2024. Born in Atlanta, and raised in Minnesota, they are interested in post-colonial theory and media, particularly from Africa. Some of their other inspirations are Third Cinema, anti-colonial literature, and Sufi poetry. They create large-scale oil paintings and work from an intuitive and meditative standpoint as a means of processing the experiences that have shaped their existence, including growing up with parents from Somalia. Using reference images from colonial pasts and neocolonial futures/presents and combining them with the images that appear in their subconscious, and familial photographs. They use these techniques to render the nostalgia of their past, and of their ancestors, and to tell stories that have been stolen or hidden away. They have been a part of the Stay Human exhibit, and the Undergraduate Scholarship exhibit at the Quarter Gallery in Regis West.
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