Samandari Yosief

Samandari Yosief is an Eritrean Artist, born in 1982 in Asmara. He is mainly a portraitist, who has come a long way in the art of painting. As a figurative painter, his style has long been evolving from the very traditional representation of his subject matter to a more stylistic portraiture of people. With his unshakable belief in what he really wanted to achieve, he persistently experimented. As a result, he attained the simplicity of his subjects with the profundity of their expressions that he wanted.

He attended a fine arts course at the Asmara Art School in 1995 and print making (engraving and etching) at the Alliance Française d’Asmara in 2009. The print at the Alliance Française d’Asmara was conducted by the renowned artist Ermias Ekube, who became his artistic mentor over the following years. Under his patronage, Samandari worked hard to improve his techniques and skill through digging deep into the history of art. His subject matter is mostly children and young ladies from everyday encounters. He explained that the innocent faces of children and the nervousness, smooth texture of the young ladies’ skin full of life and vitality appeals to his light and smooth strokes of brush work and that the way they look at the viewer, conscious of the camera, gives him the desired effect of the whole expression.

Samandri earned his Bachelor (BA) of Art in Business Management. He is currently working as a graphic illustrator at The Ministry of Education and as a part time art instructor at the Satreb Art Institute.