Ahmed Moustafa is an Egyptian born artist and scholar of international repute and now a leading authority on Arabic art and design. Initially trained as a figurative artist in the neoclassical European tradition, and drawing his inspiration primarily from Renaissance masters, he subsequently rediscovered his Islamic roots.

His work is now almost exclusively devoted to abstract compositions inspired by texts from the Holy Qur’an. He has created an astonishingly rich visual vocabulary through an innovative fusion of his skills as a painter and as a master scribe in the tradition of Islamic penmanship.

Kazem Khorassani holds an

 Art Research PhD, graduate in Modern calligraphy

Master of Graphic design / Art University of Tehran

Supervisor of more than 50 dissertations of master students of graphic design

- Inventor of modern kufic

Fifty five times ranked 1st to 3rd in national and international art festivals

More than two decades of university teaching

Director of the Visual Communications Department, Iqbal Lahori University

Member of Cite des Arts Association in Paris

Lecturer and Director of the Arts Department, Ferdows University of Mashhad / 2006 to 2015

- Author of 14 scientific research, extension articles and presentation in scientific conference and Seminar, the

Author of 5 book titles

 Published 40 works in domestic and foreign art magazines and books (France, Italy, etc.)

 Holding 22 workshops and lectures inside and outside of Iran

Participate in 15 individual exhibitions and more than 200 group exhibitions inside and outside the country

(France, Italy, Turkey, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Lebanon, Qatar, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Tehran, Emirate)

- Sign design for more than 250 brands and collections

- Founder of Khorasani Graphic Studio

Director of Advertising and Design of Alis Factories Group/2017-2018

Environmental Advertising Contractor of Khorasan Razavi International Exhibitions Company

Designer and manufacturer of 310 urban elements in different cities of Iran

Head and founder of the Ferdows branch of the Iranian Calligraphers Association/ 1997-2001

 Lecturer and official member of the Iranian Calligraphers Association since 1997

 An invited artist by Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art to study at “Cite” Artist Town in Paris / 2015

 Member of the Visual Development Center of Iran

Member of Mashhad Municipality Graphic Council/ 2009-2011

Member of Khorasan Gallery Council (Department of Culture and Islamic Guidance)

Purchase of the work by Imam Ali Museum of Tehran, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and collectors from

the Emirate, America, Canada, Turkey, England and...

Hassan MASSOUDY was born in 1944 in Najef, Iraq. He grew up amid the scalding heat of the desert, in a traditional Iraqi society. In 1961 he left for Baghdad and started working as an apprentice for various calligraphers. 

He eventually left Iraq for France in 1969. He got to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Paris where he first worked on figurative painting. But he did not stop calligraphy altogether. Over the years, calligraphy progressively got into his figurative painting and eventually took its place. 

His creations are a subtle mix of present and past, oriental and occidental art, tradition and modernity. He perpetuates tradition while braking from it. Over the years he has purified and simplified the lines of his drawing. The words and phrases he draws come from poets and writers from all over the world or sometimes simply from popular wisdom. All his work is strongly inspired by a humanistic interest. 

Lulwah Al Homoud is an established international award winner artist who received the first place National Award prize for Visual Art in 2021. She also received the RAWABI prize for fostering cultural ties between UK and KSA in London 2020. 

Lulwah is an artist and curator who started her career in London after finishing her MA degree in Art and design from Central Saint Martins in 2000 and her style became recognized globally. She exhibited East and West and her work is among the permanent collection of international museums such as LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum, USA, The British Museum, UK, Five Continents Museum, Germany, Jeju Museum, Korea and The Green Box Museum, Holland, The Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia.
She was recently a participant in the first edition of Noor Riyadh Festival.
She is also in many renowned international art institutions, among them, The Written Art Foundation in Germany, Barjeel Art Foundation in UAE and RAK art Foundation, Bahrain. 

She represented Saudi Arabia at The London Design Biennial in 2018 and at The Hermitage Museum in Russia with other international artists in 2019. Lulwah had 9 solo exhibitions during her career. Her work was featured in many art fairs. 

Lulwah is the founder of LAHAF Art Foundation based in Riyadh. 

Born in Tunisia, Abdallah Akar now lives and works in Paris. He exhibited for the first time in 1986. He began teaching calligraphy at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris in 1993.

Akar’s mesmerizing installation for Abu Dhabi Art finds its inspiration in the renowned collection of seven pre-Islamic poems known as the Mu’Allaqât, the “suspended poems”. According to tradition, these poems were originally written on silk weavings that hung suspended and floating on the walls of the Kaaba. Written before the Koran, the poems are considered among the founding texts of Arabic language and culture. Akar breathes new life into these storied poems in his installation, suspending seven large cotton banners on which he’s written in Kufic characters the first verses of the seven ancient poems. The banners are arranged so that each woven piece allows light to pass through, boldly outlining the calligraphic characters. The installation functions as a commemorative site for the Mu’Allaqât, and the public is invited to experience the text as a wave of words and colours. The blazing volatility of these textiles evokes the long fourteen centuries that the texts have traversed, like a caravan library, to reach us.

In this work, Akar takes us back to 6th-century Bedouin society, where verbal sparring matches were keenly fought, where the poetry was “powerful and invisible as the wind on dunes,” and where beautiful words were worth all the wealth of the world. In Mecca, the greatest poems were hung floating on the breeze for everyone to see. All the great Arabic poets are represented in Akar’s work: from Ibn Arabî to Nizar Kabbani, from Ibn Al-Roumi to Abou-el-Kacem Chabbi to the renowned Mahmoud Darwich -- Akar celebrates all of them in his art, on paper as well as on canvas. 

Each background is a celebration of the geometry of language. Akar hangs transparent papers between the veils and the light sources in order to filter the glow streaming through the poems, which are written in Maghrebi writing. Together, the veils form a college of ancient poetic verse that the viewer can enter to experience “the tears of a loved being” or “the spark of love”. Wandering among these illuminated fabrics becomes a dramatic game of changing combinations and an ethereal amalgamation of textures and words. The woven muslin fabric is appealing because of its texture and transparency, while the Kufic style of calligraphy is used because of its striking geometry. Like Akar, viewers are easily seduced by the complexity of paper and wood as well as the long cotton veils in the installation. The result is a living meditation on tradition and a visceral encounter with the sensations words evoke. 

Born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1988, Everitte finished his Masters in International Business and Arabic at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He currently lives in Beirut, Lebanon where he continues to research and develop his skills as a calligrapher and artist, as well as improving his Arabic language skills.

Although he has had a passion for the arts from a young age, he did not begin studying Arabic calligraphy until he travelled to the Middle East. He learned to write the Ruq’a, Diwani, Square kufik and Diwani Jali script from the master calligrapher Adnan Farid whilst living in Damascus, Syria in 2009.

The mural, titled "Never Ending / Endless" is an abstract piece that merges Arabic letters into a shape of a circle, representing continuity. The piece is intended to be viewed clockwise. Following along the circle, one’s eyes are transported down and around to Fatima’s expressive calligraphy that finishes the form. 

The inner depth of the circle is a “sensory expression that sparks a notion of infinity, and the never-ending power that lives within us.” 

Ruh is a multi-award winning British artist and designer who has been continuously evolving his work across multiple disciplines for almost two decades. Although from a fine art background, the London-born artist studied Graphic Design at the prestigious Central St. Martins College of Art & Design, with a focus on illustration and film. His work has ranged from traditional painting to digital interactive animations and videos. He recently received an award from the Crown Prince of Dubai for his contributions to art.

Neda Matian is an artist who says is deeply touched by the enchanting world of art. 

It all began when she took her very first professional art class at the age of 11. From that moment, she was captivated by the power of drawing and painting.

 When enrolled in a professional calligraphy class, it added a new dimension to her art. « Calligraphy became the missing piece in my abstract paintings, bringing words and letters to life and adding depth and meaning to my creations. »

The forms and geometric shapes of letters fascinated her, and she immersed herself in the world of calligraphy, constantly seeking to learn and grow.

« My mission as an artist is to create change, to bring beauty into the world, and to leave a lasting mark through my creations. »

With each stroke of the brush, I invite others to join me on this artistic odyssey, where the possibilities are boundless and the power of self-expression knows no limits.

 Mahdis Kavehmehr is an upcoming calligraphy artist based in Tehran, Iran.

My artworks she says are a combination of modern persian calligraphy forms and painting techniques, mainly on canvas support.

I have followed on several courses on painting and calligraphy and am very keen on learning various contemporary forms of persian and English calligraphy as well.

Besides creating artworks for the public and myself in my workshop, I also enjoy doing calligraphy on city walls.

 Nja Mahdaoui was born in Tunis in 1937. He initially studied painting and art history at Carthage National Museum, but was later, encouraged by the director of the Italian Cultural Centre in Tunis, studied painting and philosophy at the Santa Andrea Academy in Rome (1966–1968).

He later moved to Paris to go to the Cite Internationale des Arts and where he attended courses at the Ecole du Louvre. Mahdaoui returned to Tunisia in 1977 and currently lives and works there. Mahdaoui began his career as an abstract painter in the 1960s, then continued by experimenting with Arabic calligraphy. Mahdaoui has tried various traditional and experimental media. He produced his first paintings on parchment in 1972, he became interested in weaving and carpet production in 1979 and he began to paint on animal skins and on the human body in 1980. Today he is known as the "inventor of abstract calligraphy," since his designs resemble Arabic letters, but have no literal meaning. When asked about his style Mahdaoui said, "I use fragmented and distorted letters to reject valuing each character. He started using his own personal Calligrams on various mediums such as: canvas, papyrus, sculpture, aluminum, brass, drum, textile, embroidery, tapestry, ceramic, wood, jewelry, stained steel glass, planes, etc. On account of his use of calligraphy in art, he is said to be part of the Hurufiyah art movement.

Saeed Naghashian was born on July 26, 1356 in Tehran, to art-loving family. My father's profession was painting and calligraphy. Since 1369, at the insistence of my father, I went to a calligraphy class and started practicing Nastaliq calligraphy. Later, this practice turned into a love that will never leave my soul. This was and is my father's greatest legacy for me and I am and will always be grateful for his kindness.

In 1975, I entered Sourah University and studied graphics. In 1376, the greatest event of my life happened to me in line with my artistic career, and that was meeting Professor Hamid Ajmi, the creator of Moali calligraphy school. I have the honor of being his student since that year. After getting to know him and seeing Moali's line, I found that he and my lost lines are in line with art. Since 1977, I have professionally studied with him, and since 1980, I have organized numerous exhibitions in line with Khat Moali's thought and mysticism in the country and abroad, in the form of group and individual exhibitions.