Sujay Shah (Kenyan, b. 1991). Lives and works in Nairobi

Sujay Shah draws on science fiction, myth and history in his paintings, to create hybrid beings - human, animal, and machine - caught in states of transition and gestation. Influenced in part by Octavia Butler’s book Lilith’s Brood, in which humans are subjected to alien intervention and adaptation, this sense of hybridity runs throughout the work in recurring motifs such as cyborg bodies, allegorical creatures, and surreal figures.

Created during a period of deep personal and global instability, this body of work marks a turning point in Shah’s practice. The works reflect the sensation of standing on shifting ground. By allowing space for ambiguity, strangeness, and complexity, he moves away from narrowing definitions of identity and instead places trust in intuition and process. The figures in these paintings emerge from landscapes marked by both breakdown and renewal. Shah is interested in the forms of life that arise from damaged systems - ecological, cultural, political, bodily, and spiritual. Ruined environments give way to new structures, and bodies change by developing extra layers, new organs, or mechanical extensions. Neither fully formed nor resolved, these figures convey vulnerability and uncertainty. They exist at a midpoint between organic, technological, and mythic lineages. They are not symbols of dystopia or progress, but transitional entities learning how to survive within altered and disorienting environments. At times they appear to be morphing and adapting; at others, they seem suspended, caught in the fragile space between dissolution and assembly.

In a world saturated with images and narratives that dictate what to think and feel, Shah’s work remains open-ended, inviting viewers to slow down, question what they see, and accept the subjective nature of meaning itself.

Biography: Shah earned his BFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 2013. After graduating, he lived in New York City, where he worked as a studio assistant to artists Paul Bloodgood and Anne Chu, an experience that deeply influenced his early artistic development. Shah has exhibited internationally in the United States (Savannah and New York), France, India, and Abu Dhabi. His work is part of the permanent collection at the Savannah College of Art and Design. His first solo exhibition, Forgive Us for Our Skins, opened at Circle Art Gallery’s new space in Nairobi in 2023. In 2024, he held his first museum solo exhibition, The Slant of Thirsting Mouths, at the SCAD Museum of Art in Atlanta. Group exhibitions include Luminous Riveries (2024), Gallery Dotwalk, India, Fictions (2022), Various Small Fires (2021), and I Will See What I Want to See (2019), all at Circle Art Gallery, If Not Now (2018) at the Cave Bureau, and Imperial Silhouettes (2024) at the Rizq Art Initiative in Abu Dhabi. Residencies include 32° East at the Ugandan Arts Trust in Kampala and The Factory in Lamu. He has taken part in the 1-54 London Contemporary African Art Fair (2023) and Art Paris (2024). In 2022, Shah was awarded the Writers Artists Travel Fellowship (WAFT) to the Venice Biennale by Wangechi Mutu Studio.

Souad Abdelrassoul (Egyptian, b. 1974). Lives and works in Cairo

Souad Abdelrassoul’s practice spans various media, incorporating drawing, painting, sculpture and graphic design. Working between the abstract and figurative, she intertwines human, animal and vegetal forms, believing we are all intrinsically connected to the earth. Tree-like figures with branching veins and arteries, and giant insect-like creatures, merge on her canvases to remind the viewer of the vital bond between our internal lives and the exterior world we live in.

Adopting a surrealist touch, Abdelrassoul’s paintings exalt in the feminine and the emotional. They explore the idea of the modern woman, informed by her own experiences of living within a patriarchal society. Many of her motifs address these issues, whilst also making reference to artists and practices that she admires. Reflecting on her experiences as a mother, Abdelrassoul draws attention to the ways women evolve and adapt in oppressive environments. Often using familiar myths and legends, she paints stories through her figures that question the roles women hold in society and cultural history in disruptive and thought-provoking ways. By reconceptualizing perceptions of space, she repurposes notions of form, science and nature into strikingly personal configurations.

Souad Abdelrassoul received her BFA from El Minya University in 1998, a masters degree in Art History in 2005, and a PhD in Modern Art History in 2012. She has exhibited widely since the late 1990s, with solo shows in Cairo, Dakar, and Nairobi, including Behind the River (2021) and Unstable Worlds (2024), at Circle Art Gallery. Group exhibitions include East African Encounters, Cromwell Place, London (2021); A Never Ending Longing Cromwell Place, London (2022); Like a Single Pomegranate, Almas Foundation at the Fitzrovia Gallery, London (2023), accompanied by a monograph of the same name. Her work has been shown at art fairs in London, Dubai, Marrakech, as well as The Armory Show in New York in 2022. That same year, her work was commissioned for the facade of the Hayward Gallery in London and she was featured in Phaidon’s 300 Great Women Painters. In 2023, she was a finalist for the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize in Cape Town. In 2025 she took part in the group exhibition Finding my Blue Sky curated by Omar Kholeif at Lisson Gallery, London, and featured in the Abu Dhabi and 1-54 London Art Fairs with Gallery Misr. She recently took part in Art Basel Qatar with Gallery Misr and is currently taking part in the Cape Town Art Fair with Circle Art Gallery.

Abdelrassoul’s work is featured in the collections of the Worcester Art Museum, Chazen Museum and the Fortress House Museum.

Circle Art Gallery, Cape Town Art Fair- 19 - 22 FEB 2026 WITH ARTISTS: Souad Abdelrassoul & Sujay Shah

Circle Art Gallery, Cape Town Art Fair-
19 - 22 FEB 2026
WITH ARTISTS: Souad Abdelrassoul & Sujay Shah