This review was initially published as part of a now abandoned journal project under the title Triple.
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“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”
-Rumi
In May, the exhibit to which my mind has returned most often is Continuum: From Classical to Contemporary Islamic Art, which is being hosted by the City of Raleigh in their Block Gallery. Guest curator Kulsum Tasnif , founder of The Artist Ummah and the creative force behind the The Protest Purse, is an artist herself. Her series “Journey to the Good Life,” is a collection of illustrations of war survivors she interviewed, which required four years of work recording their oral histories- not the first time she has taken on the role of historian for her community.
I saw the work initially in the company of Kulsum and many of the artists during the reception for the show. Milling around among their family and friends, who were speaking a mix of languages and sharing food from dolma to chocolate chip cookies, the word “diversity” hummed in the back of my mind. In the fraught moment where we find ourselves, it was uplifting to look around and see a glimpse of a world that is rich, not dull with simplistic ethnocentrism. The range of beauty left me full of hope, and beckoned me to daydream about the best iteration of America-as-a-melting-pot.
Kulsum’s painting, “God is Beautiful and Loves Beauty,” which is the feature image for this journal, is also the reason I’ve thought so much about this show. Yes, it harkens to a beautiful sentiment. At the time I first saw it, our nation was only days past the President threatening to wipe out the entire civilization of Iran. I could not reconcile this blind vitriol with what I stood before, and was dumbstruck, and saddened. Iran occupies the land which was Persia, which is the ethnic lineage of one of the Artists in the show, and an empire which predated the Roman one so many westerners consider the historical precursor of their own civilizations and cultures. The (uneven) power dynamics and conflicts between the west and the Muslim world, which serve no one but a powerful few, are an undeniable part of the backdrop of this exhibit and inform the way any thinking person will encounter it.
There is no better time to point not just at the compositional strategies and material techniques of several ancient cultures, but also at their lessons and mores. I looked around at works with titles like “With Every Hardship There is Ease” and “The Geometry of Peace” and felt connection to these concepts. The ideas at work spoke directly to me, as a non-religious person; certainly the artist in me responded to the tug of universality in their poetics as well, ergo the Rumi quote to start. I know that “universality” is out of fashion, even considered trite by some. I find the notion that some values have similarity- if not directly resulting in identical beliefs, at least common intent- across a multitude of cultures to be a powerful story. Regular readers know I center the importance of “and”… in this case I’m pointing to the fact that centering diversity uplifts how cultures (and individuals) are different, and it shows us how and where we have things in common.
Another valuable issue at stake in the works in this exhibit lies in their hand-made qualities. While they are of above average quality craftsmanship- graphically tight, and highly detailed- the presence of the artist is also clear. Look closely and it’s obvious they are made by hand. The point is of course to embody an aesthetic, yes, but not to privilege craftsmanship or point to some unattainable perfection. The resonance of the analog in a time of algorithms and flattening of culture through screen devices is something that I’ve noted in many conversations recently. Being “hand made” in 2026 lands very differently than it did just a few years ago, and “thank you” to Kulsum and the artists for celebrating that.
There are many opportunities to learn through the show as well. The traditions of making and forms associated with Islamic art include Tezhip (a form of illumination originating in Turkey), Arabic calligraphy and (Persian) Nastaliq script. I encourage readers to click on the first link in the first paragraph above (as well as this one on the distinction between Iranian and Persian) to learn more about these highly committed artists and artisans. Habibe Kocak, Hiba Chohan, Melika Osareh, Nigam Eshan, Roohi Amed and Noureen Shaikh are all keeping traditions alive that in some cases are thousands of years old. So, again, like last month, I must congratulate the staff of my City for their efforts to bring work important to citizens’ understanding of the world into public spaces.
And! The exhibit run was just extended through August so you definitely have time to go by at least once (I plan to take at least one more trip myself) and bring a friend, or family member to share in this connection to the world outside of this country’s borders and to time outside of the one in which we find ourselves.
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