I was born in Wad-Medani, a small town on the bank of the Blue NIle River in Sudan. Since a young age I loved painting and the way I could express myself through it. I decided to continue my studies and went to the School of Fine and Applied Arts in Khartoum. I graduated in 1978 and the next year was awarded a scholarship to the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. There I got a BA in painting and another in etching. In 1991 I analyzed the Sudanese art in a PhD thesis entitled “The traditional and contemporary in Sudanese art”, the first of its kind. From then until 1999 I taught at the same university. After 20 years in Spain and exhibiting in many countries, I decided along with my ex-wife to return to Sudan. Here we both opened Dara Art Gallery in 1999, the first professional art gallery in the country which still runs until today. It was originally a space where Sudanese artists could display their art properly. In 2006 it became my private art gallery because I had reached a dream of mine. That was the creation of Rashid Diab Arts Centre, a space I yearned for when I was young, a nonprofit organization I created for the people of Sudan to appreciate and immerse themselves in their culture, where art can be enjoyed in all its forms, where forums, debates, concerts, exhibitions and more can be attended by everyone. Here I could give back to my community, so far over 200 artists have exhibited there and more will come. Today I live and work in Khartoum and still travel around the globe for exhibitions and the representation of Sudanese culture. organization he founded in 2006 to further the opportunities of Sudanese art and artists.