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Sumayyah Eldin is a British-Egyptian multidisciplinary artist, educator and creative director based in Manchester.

Her practice brings together seemingly distant artistic worlds: the luminosity and discipline of Renaissance painting, the romance of the Pre-Raphaelites, medieval illumination and gilding, the mathematical beauty of Arabic geometry and the atmospheric landscapes of the Romantic and Gothic traditions.

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Working across oil, acrylic, watercolour, gold leaf, geometry, sculpture and papyrus, Sumayyah moves freely between highly detailed historical techniques and looser, dreamlike painting. Ruined architecture, dramatic skies, botanical forms, ancient ornament and imagined landscapes recur throughout her work, alongside a longstanding interest in the artistic traditions of Egypt and the wider Islamic world.

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Rather than developing a single recognisable medium, her practice is deliberately multidisciplinary. Her British and Egyptian heritage has shaped an artistic language that moves between East and West, antiquity and the present, precision and intuition.

Sumayyah has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions and is a published artist. Her first solo exhibition, The Multiple Dimensions of Me, presented a substantial body of work spanning classical painting, abstraction, geometry and culturally rooted practice.

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Originally a self-taught artist, Sumayyah has since undertaken classical artistic training in Florence, Italy, studying traditional drawing, painting and sculptural methods associated with the Old Masters. This foundation continues to inform her contemporary practice, particularly her fascination with craftsmanship, historical materials and the physical processes through which artworks were once made.

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Alongside her studio practice, Sumayyah is the Founder and Creative Director of Creative Society Manchester, an award-winning independent arts organisation producing artist-led workshops, cultural programmes and creative events.

Her work as an artist and facilitator has taken her into galleries, libraries, historic houses, universities, public institutions and major corporate spaces. She has created and delivered programmes for organisations including Manchester City Council, the National Trust, the NHS and leading national and international companies, developing experiences that make art history, heritage and specialist creative practices feel immediate, exciting and accessible.

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Sumayyah is Resident Artist at the Portico Library and Grounded and serves on the Portico Library’s Public Programming Committee, contributing to the cultural life of one of Manchester's historic literary institutions.

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She is also an experienced speaker and educator, delivering talks, masterclasses and creative programmes exploring art history, cultural heritage, artistic practice and the relationship between creativity and wellbeing. Her Master's degree in Psychology, with research focused on mindfulness, brings another dimension to this work and informs her understanding of creativity as both an artistic and human experience.

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At the centre of Sumayyah's practice is a fascination with the places where cultures, histories and artistic languages intersect.

Her work does not ask East or West, traditional or contemporary, artist or educator.

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It exists in the space between them.

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