Islamic Calligraphy Workshop with Soheila Esfahani

This in-person workshop explores the ways in which calligraphy and text have been incorporated into visual arts. Through hands-on making, participants will have the opportunity to consider the creative possibilities of Islamic calligraphy, from traditional art forms to contemporary art. Artist Soheila Esfahani will lead participants in learning techniques using traditional reed pen and ink to create artworks inspired by text.

A limited number of spaces are available to the public for this workshop, which is being offered through the U of T Scarborough Studio Art course “Text as Image/Language as Art”. Registration is required. Materials provided. If you have accommodation needs, please let us know when registering or contact dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca. 

Soheila Esfahani grew up in Tehran, Iran, and moved to Canada in 1992. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario and her BA in Fine Arts from the University of Waterloo. Her work has been exhibited across Canada from Vancouver to Halifax and collected by various public and private institutions, including the Canada Council’s Art Bank. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at Western University and is a member of the Red Head Gallery in Toronto. Esfahani’s art practice navigates the terrains of cultural translation and explores the processes involved in cultural transfer and transformation. Her installations focus on the translation in its etymological meaning as the process of ‘carrying across’ or ‘bringing across’ and Homi Bhabha’s notion of the third space as a site for cultural translation.