2025/2026 Program
Soomaal Visual Arts Fellowship is an initiative by Soomaal House of Art in partnership with Augsburg University Art Galleries. The artists considered for these fellowships work in a variety of visual art media, including both traditional and new media. During the fellowship year, each artist receives studio visits, access to technical assistance and a culminating gallery exhibition at Augsburg University.
Nafyar Abdullahi and Jowhara Sheikh Omar, the selected 2025/26 fellows, will produce a body of work that will culminate in an exhibition in the fall of 2026 at Augsburg University’s Gage Family Art Gallery and Christensen Center Art Gallery. The exhibition will have educational components to supplement artworks such as public presentations and panel discussions around the show and contemporary Somali visual art.
Jowhara Sheikh Omar
Jowhara, a Somali visual artist based in Minnesota, is finding her voice in the world of contemporary art. Her art reflects her complex and intersecting identities and showcases the transformative power of self-expression. During her formative years, Jowhara learned to conceal her differences in search of belonging, often masking her true self. However, art became her sanctuary, a realm where she could freely uncover and express the layers of her identity.
Jowhara's work spans various media, including painting, sketching, photography, and poetry. Each medium serves as a unique canvas for her to explore and express the multifaceted aspects of her identity. Through her art, Jowhara invites viewers to immerse themselves in the intricate mosaic of her life, where her Somali heritage, multicultural upbringing, global experiences, neurodivergence, and Muslim faith converge into a compelling narrative of self-discovery and acceptance.
Jowhara is a 2022/2023 Aragti Wadaag Resident.
Nafyar Abdullahi
Nafyar is a Somali artist based in Minneapolis whose work focuses on excavating colonial histories and pasts. They are interested in post-colonial theory and media, particularly from Africa. They are inspired by Third World Cinema, anti-colonial literature, and Sufi poetry. They create large-scale oil paintings and drawings while working intuitively and meditatively to process the experiences that have shaped their existence. Their work contemplates their familial nomadic past while living in an imperial capitalistic present. They use reference images from colonial pasts and neocolonial futures/presents and combine them with the images that appear in their subconscious and familial photographs.
Nafyar is a 2024/2025 Aragti Wadaag Resident.
The Augsburg Art Galleries (AAG) is comprised of three main on-campus art spaces: Gage Family Art Gallery, Christensen Center Art Gallery, and Gallery720. Found on both ends of the Minneapolis campus, these spaces are dedicated to cultivating creative ideas and intellectual growth through direct engagement with visual art. The mission of the AAG is to serve our community through supporting the innovation and experimentation of visual artists as they foster creativity, conversation, engagement, and critical thinking. This community includes the students, faculty, and staff of Augsburg as well as the regional, national, and international exhibiting artists, alumni, surrounding neighborhoods, and wider Twin Cities public.