Video: @MetMuseum and Why I like it

Agora Gallery – Fahim Somani – Exhibition Announcement. Pakistani-American, Houston-based artist Fahim Somani creates expressionistic, calligraphy-inflected compositions which are not only exquisite formal experiments full of delightful painterly flourishes, but aesthetic bridges between two cultures. While drawing on the text of the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, Somani incorporates elements that evoke Minimalism, Abstract Expressionism, and other currents in post-war American art. The artist achieves this marriage of visual cues from Islamic and American art with innate talent, producing powerful and enigmatic images full of brilliant brushstrokes and vibrant textures.

In the fall of 2009, Intersections International led a delegation of 8 American artists from many different disciplines on a 3-week immersion trip though Jordan, Lebanon and Syria at part of the Iraqi Voices Amplification Project (IVAP). Our goal is to use the power of the arts to call attention to one of the most pressing and under-reported social justice issues of our time: the displacement of more than 4 million Iraqis as a result of the military intervention in Iraq. While on the trip, the delegation entered into conversations with hundreds of refugees at community centers and in their…