Pop Art and Islam by Farah Soobhan

About

Farah Soobhan, founder of ‘Farah Visual Arts’, is a contemporary mixed-media artist based in London who uses the versatile style of Pop Art to explore what it means to be a Muslim living in the Western world. Originally from Mauritius, she created the first Islamic Pop Art collection, using Arabic calligraphy in her bright and colourful paintings to address serious topics that include: religion, politics, war, terrorism, police brutality, misogyny, Islamophobia and the refugee crisis.

Always pushing the boundaries of traditional Islamic art, her work and profile have been featured in the Evening Standard, on Al Jazeera TV news, the Islam Channel, the British Muslim TV and the BBC. She has taken part also in various exhibitions in the UK and was selected to front the ´Message to Isis’ campaign in 2015.

Soobhan has taken part in many exhibitions, including: the ‘Journey through the world of Islamic Art’ in Lincolnshire (part of a four-day ‘Living Islam’ festival), the ‘Art of Peace’ exhibition at the Muslim Lifestyle Expo in Manchester this year, the ‘Moniker Art Fair’ in Brick Lane and ‘Radical Love: Female Lust’ exhibition that was held at the Crypt Gallery in King’s Cross which featured 40 international female artists to respond to vibrant poems written by women across the the Arab world in the Middle Ages.

In this talk, Farah Siobhan will discuss how she utilises the Pop Art form to explore Islamic faith and dual identity within the global context of the religious and political forces we hear and read about in newspapers and on our TV screens. Always adding elements of colour and fun, she is careful, for example, not to use faces to make it accessible for Muslims to purchase and display the works in their homes.