LACMA’s Islamic Art Now Looks to Past, Present and Future

Lucy Tiven

On view at LACMA from Jan. 24 is Islamic Art Now, Part Two spotlighting contemporary Middle Eastern artists reflecting on tradition, identity, culture and formality.

Looking to their own cultures, featured artists incorporate and reinterpret traditional techniques, imagery and ideas to build creative and narrative links between the past, the present and the future.

The show speaks to the museum’s Islamic collection, which LACMA has acquired over the past decade and follows the first part of the contemporary Islamic art show. Today, Islamic art is particularly relevant as questions of Islamic identity are raised again and again in the Western world, often obfuscated by political rhetoric or “othering” impulses.

These works ask what Islamic tradition and identity mean in the contemporary world through the eyes of cutting edge artists with a focus on futurity and how traditional forms and subjects are translated and interpreted across time.

Islamic Art Now, Part 2 features approximately 29 works by artists from Iran, the Arab world, Turkey, and Azerbaijan, including Shoja Azari, Lulwah Al Homoud, Burhan Doǧançay, Fereydoun Ave, Shirin Guirguis, Newsha Tavakolian, Shadi Ghadirian, Hassan Hajjaj, Ahmed Mater, and Faig Ahmed, among others.

Islamic Art Now, Part 2: Contemporary Art of the Middle East is on view at LACMA from Jan. 24 and is ongoing and included in general museum admission.