Suffering and Smiling Painting

Abi Salami is a self-taught artist who creates large-scale surrealist works that explore her experiences as a Nigerian immigrant and Black woman in the United States. Through the use of a personal visual lexicon made up of symbols, she explores topics such as memory, mental health and race. Based in Dallas, Texas, she earned a Masters in Professional Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and worked in Corporate America for almost a decade before committing to painting full-time. Since then, her artwork has graced the walls of esteemed institutions such as Montresso Art Foundation in Morocco, and Galerie Droste in Germany, Cris Worley Fine Arts in Dallas, C24 Gallery and Field Projects in New York City, the Women’s Museum and the African American Museum of Art in Dallas. She was the winner of the 2021 Hopper Prize. She was selected as a candidate of the Saatchi Art 2020 Rising Stars under 35 Class and a 2021 New Voices Top 100 Artists. She and her work have been featured on the Washington Post, New York Times, Artland, Artsy, D Magazine, Glasstire and Patron Magazine.