Degree Show 2025: Meet the Graduates – Summer Alireza, MA
“Art has shaped me from a young age, thanks to my mother, an avid painter, and the inspiring tutors who nurtured my creative instincts.
My painting style later developed into painting nature and people—birds, flowers, animals—capturing impressions rather than exact forms. Studying product design at Central Saint Martins in London later merged my artistic sensibilities with a more technical foundation.
Attending the MA program at the King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts enabled me to explore the essence of art predating the European Renaissance, particularly the rich visual and intellectual traditions of earlier civilizations. I became deeply interested in the Islamic civilization’s Medieval renaissance and examined the works of scholars such as Ibn al-‘Arabi, Ikhwan al-Safa, and Al-Biruni.
Inspired by their writings on Cosmology—especially those of Ibn al-‘Arabi—I attempted to develop a visual language that translated his ideas into form.
The strong grounding in geometry I received at the school became instrumental in developing a series of paintings that visually interpret the cosmological ideas found in the text. Traditional painting techniques and methods also played a key role in shaping this body of work.
Central to my exploration was the Quran’s profound influence on Islamic cosmology. Its verses are rich with imagery of creation, the heavens, and the Divine order. I integrated selected Quranic verses into some of my paintings, combining calligraphy and geometry to reflect the cosmological order that is clearly highlighted in the sacred text.
My time at the school helped me view art not just as image-making, but as a means of conveying deeper ideas and messages. Geometry, in particular, has become a powerful tool for expressing complex concepts in an abstract and structured way, bridging the spiritual and the visual.”
