Works by Maliheh Afnan and Farhad Ahrarnia are featured at The Brunei Gallery, SOAS in a major new exhibition, The Future of Traditions, Writings Pictures: Contemporary Art from the Middle East, open from 12 January to 25 March 2023.
The exhibition is collaboratively produced by guest curated by Rose Issa and Bob Annibale and explores three generations of artists, from Iran and the Arab world, from the early pioneers of a vernacular 'Lettrism' movement to those incorporating the written word in their works today. These artists, from different background and styles, take inspiration from their own culture and combine those influences with international aesthetics and concepts. The result is the creation of an alternative and original approach to modernism and contemporary art.
While partly based on the book 'Signs of Our Times: From Calligraphy to Calligraffiti', the exhibition adds more artists from the younger generation-artists whose concerns, whether conceptual, socio-political, or simply aesthetic, have found their own modes of expression, thus contributing to world art.
Artists include: Etel Adnan, Maliheh Afnan, Farhad Ahrarnia, Siah Armajani, Nasser al Aswadi, Manal al Dowayan, Halim al Karim, Shakir Hassan al Said, Mouneer al Shaarani, Chant Avedissian, Said Baalbaki, Mahmoud Bakhshi, Jacqueline B jani, Khaled Ben Slimane, Kamal Boullata, Hanieh Delecroix, Jumana el Husseini, Mohammad Ehsaey, Ali Omar Ermes, Parastou Forouhar, Bita Ghezelayagh, Fathi Hassan, Susan Hefuna, Farnaz Jahanbin, Christine Khondjie, Rachid Koraichi, Nja Mahdaoui, Hassan Massoudy, Joumana Medlej, Farhad Moshiri, Ahmed Moustafa, Enayatollah Nouri, Mahmoud Obaidi, Mehdi Qotbi, Nayla Romanos Iliya, Katayoun Rouhi, Walid Siti and Hossein Valamanesh.
