British Artist Traces Graffiti's Muslim Roots

THE ART NEWSPAPER
By Anny Shaw

Mohammed Ali, a muralist from Birmingham who goes by the name of Aerosol Arabic,
presented a short, unconventional history of graffiti beginning with a 13th-century Muslim artist

UNITED KINGDOM---A two-day festival and exhibition of art, music and poetry by Muslim artists or artists celebrating Islamic culture closed in East London on 31 October. Part of the World Islamic Economic Forum, which was held this year for the first time in a non-Muslim country, MOCAfest (Marketplace of Creative Arts) brought together 30 artists from around the world, including several graffiti artists. Qasim Arif Illm, a calligraphy artist from the Netherlands, exhibited canvases that fuse Arabic scripts with graffiti lettering, while Mohammed Ali, a muralist from Birmingham who goes by the name of Aerosol Arabic, showed paintings inspired equally by the Quran and the New York subway art movement of the early 1980s. [link]