Crossing Boundaries Lecture: Signs, Traces & Calligraphy, by Rose Issa
The first international impact of contemporary Arab and Iranian artists in the West started with "Signs, Traces and Calligraphy", an approach that was not only new in the Western world - because they referred to their own cultural background - but encouraged artists to impose the own original signature and aesthetics in the world art scene.
Fathi Hassan Exhibition: The Depth of Hope
Egyptian-Sudanese artist Fathi Hassan presents his latest exhibition at the VCUQatar Gallery.
Fathi Hassan was born was born in Cairo in 1957 to Sudanese and Egyptian parents. Since graduating in 1984, he has lived in Le Marche, Italy, and currently works between Italy and Great Britain.
In his drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations, Hassan experiments with the written and spoken word, exploring the theme of ancient languages erased by colonial domination. With invented, Kufic-inspired scripts, he plays with the symbols, textures and calligraphy of his Nubian heritage to explore the space between graphic symbolism and literal meaning in vibrant colours and collage.
Over the past 30 years he has participated in numerous solo and group shows in Italy (including the 1988 Venice Biennale), Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, Great Britain and New York. His work is in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the British Museum, London and The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC.
