ARTiculations with award-winning street artist Mohammed Ali

About

As part of the ARTiculations Series at Asia House

A global phenomenon and award-winning street artist Mohammed Ali will be in conversation with Pamela Kember, Head of Arts and Learning at Asia House on 2 June 2015.

His public lectures about the power of the arts to transform society and how it can tackle some of the difficult issues that we face in multi-cultural societies are even more relevant today – a subject he touched on in his recent TedX talk at the Vatican – an event streamed live to almost a million viewers around the globe.

Mohammed Ali has been fusing street art and geometric patterns constructed with Arabic words for more than a decade, evoking Islamic decorative forms, combining meaningful messages that connect people of all faith in multicultural cities globally. Before Arabic-influenced graffiti became popular across the Middle East, Birmingham-based Ali was pioneering socially-conscious art through his unique style within an international context.

After studying multimedia design at university, he worked in the games industry as a designer. He soon became disillusioned with creating art for art’s sake, and began exploring creating art, as he puts it, for ‘mankind’s  sake’. He describes his art as “breathing a bit of life and colour into the concrete jungles that we exist in.” His work is also intended to symbolise a universal quest for spiritual transcendence, as much as unity.

He has collaborated on thought-provoking urban art murals including painting, installation, and architecture in cities including New York, Chicago, Toronto, Melbourne and Dubai, inspiring the next generation with their own imagination and ideas. He was honoured with the Diversity Award at the South Bank Show Awards in 2009 which celebrates outstanding achievements in promoting diverse groups and cultures.