Ahmed Umar (Arabic: أحمد عمر, born 10 February 1988) is a Sudanese-Norwegian visual artist and LGBT activist.

[1] Umar arrived in Norway in 2008 as a political refugee from Sudan on the basis of his sexuality, which at the time was one of seven nations that executed people for same-sex conduct.

[8] While in Norway, he became an artist known for mixing Sudanese and Western influences [9][10] in the medium of live performances, work with ceramics,[11] jewellery,[12] and prints.

[2][14] He later said of this experience: I believed that I was cursed and that Allah would punish me with eternal unhappiness, HIV and die like Freddie Mercury, and that I will bring shame to my family.

[1] In an interview with 500 Words Magazine, he discussed his belief that there were entirely homosexual groups of men living in the Kingdom of Kush,[5] challenging Sudan's deep-rooted homophobia.

In 2020, while filming The Art of Sin, he compiled a series of photographs of various members of the LGBT community in Sudan, then added his face on top of theirs.

He titled this series Carrying the face of ugliness (Arabic: شايل وش القباحة) after a Sudanese phrase which refers to someone who does something unfamiliar, confronts an issue and takes the blame for it.

[42] 2017: Debutante Award, Kunsthånverk, Norske kunst og hånverkers Årsutstilling, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim.