Six young blue-painted figures shown closely together against a pale ground in El-ham Tabsoba’s painting Before Names.

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Before Names, 2026

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
132 × 60 cm
Material detail from Before Names by El-ham Tabsoba.

Context

Before Names brings six children together in a single line. Each face holds its own expression, but the figures also read as one body. The painting looks at childhood as a place where identity is still forming and asks what children inherit before they have the language to name it.

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