Flamenco Dancers

Ibrahim El-Salahi’s long-standing relationship with Islamic architectural forms was known to have inspired his fluid figurative compositions. In this epic six-panel work Flamenco Dancers (2011–2012), El-Salahi found resonance in the colours and shapes of Andalusia. A desert-hued background, informed by its Islamic architecture and the Moorish relics of Alhambra, frames a flurry of central figures sharply defined by the contrast of their black silhouettes and the white central arch that contains them.