Ahmed Shibrain was born in 1931 in Berber, a city in the Nile River state in Sudan.
He studied in the khalwa (a traditional Islamic school), then in primary and secondary schools, where he showed his talent and passion for art.
He joined the College of Fine and Applied Arts in Sudan in 1951, where he met Ibrahim El-Salahi, who became his lifelong friend and collaborator.
He graduated from the college in 1956, and received a scholarship to study at the Central School of Arts in London, where he was exposed to different artistic movements and styles.
He returned to Sudan in 1959, and became a lecturer at the College of Fine and Applied Arts, where he taught drawing, painting, and design.
He also became the director of the National Council for Arts and Letters, and the head of the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Khartoum.
He founded the Khartoum School of Visual Art with Ibrahim El-Salahi in 1960, which was a group of Sudanese artists who combined traditional African and Islamic motifs with modern techniques and forms.
He also founded the Shibrain Center for Arts in 1974, which was a cultural hub that hosted exhibitions, workshops, lectures, and publications on art and culture.
He participated in many national and international exhibitions, such as the Venice Biennale, the Sao Paulo Biennale, the Cairo Biennale, the Dakar Biennale, and the Sharjah Biennial.
He also represented Sudan in many cultural events and festivals, such as the Festival of African Art in Lagos, Nigeria, and the Festival of Arab Culture in Paris, France.
He received many awards and honors for his artistic achievements, such as the Order of the Republic for Merit from the President of Sudan in 2003, and the Nile Award for Arts from the Ministry of Culture in 2015.
He was known for his mastery of Arabic calligraphy, which he used as a medium of expression and communication. He created his own style of calligraphy, which he called “Shibrainism”, which was inspired by the Nubian script and the geometric patterns of Islamic art.
He died on March 25, 2017 in Khartoum, leaving behind a rich legacy of artistic works and contributions to Sudanese culture.
