ArtDog London’s artdog gallery has a new wall mural by street artist Teakster.
The mural is based on Islamic art. Referring to characteristic traditions across a wide range of lands, periods, and genres, Islamic art is a concept used first by Western art historians since the late 19th century. Public Islamic art is traditionally non-representational so does not use human or animal forms.
With the generous support of Lewisham Borough of Culture, Teakster has created a spray paint “mosaic” mural. It is a thing of beauty.
Teakster and ArtDog plan on involving the local schools with a free workshop and visits to see the wall. The children, and all visitors, will be able to see this beautiful example of art from the Islamic influence rather than a western view of art.
Through the years, Teakster has cultivated a personal style that fuses the raw energy of urban graffiti with the poise and elegance often found in traditional Islamic art. He views this careful synthesis of aesthetics as an opportunity to embrace the past and couple it with contemporary styles.The awareness of this type of mural will hopefully encourage a dialogue in the community about art from what is now a multi-diverse culture in London and thereby, hopefully, enhance tolerance and understanding.
“I want to really push this movement, this mini-renaissance of Islamic art, reusing Islamic art for modern times,” says the artist. “I would love to see this art go mainstream, to see an ordinary ad for an ordinary product that uses Islamic design because of its beauty it can break down barriers better than any interfaith dialogue. Islamic art is not beautiful because it’s Islamic. It’s beautiful because it’s universal.”
More information about Teakster can be found here: https://www.teakster.co.uk/
Also on at artdog – and in keeping with the theme of Islamic art principles, is an exhibition from Danish landscape artist, Lulu Ditzel.
Lulu, nowr living in southeast London, studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths College. She has worked as a silkscreen printer in Community Arts and as a graphic designer. For the last 10 years she has concentrated on painting on canvas with oil.
During this show she will be exhibiting a new series of large colourful and contrasting monochrome landscape paintings. These artworks are inspired by her love of the Irish landscape – in particular the shades of receding layers of mountains – such a contrast to the flatter landscape of her native Denmark. The monotone landscapes were also influenced by old black-and-white photos in family albums.
