Ilyas Kassam

Lives and works in London, UK

Artist statement

Born in 1986 in the UK, Ilyas Kassam is a British Indian Visual Artist and Poet. Drawing from Japanese and Arabic calligraphic traditions, his works centres around the notion of infinity and the role language plays within the mystical experience. Ilyas is known for his large textual paintings on rice paper, that have a explosive yet meditative quality. He is the author of Reminiscence of the Present (2011), co-host of Karl Marx Does The Washing Up podcast, and was an exhibitor at the 2018 International Ismaili Islamic Arts Festival. His poetry has been published by Horizon Magazine, The Aleph Review, Reconstructed Magazine, Sunseeker Poetry, New River Press, Rivista Magazine, Simon and Schuster, Design Company and Space Magazine. His film ‘Ligare’ was screened in 2018 at TSS, Time Square, New York. In 2020 His exhibition ‘The Way’ was held at the institution of Port Art and Design Tsuyama, Japan, as part of a joint show with the infamous icon, Misuzu Kaneko. His painted works have gained recent acclaim due to his novel reimagining of ancient techniques. Ilyas is a self taught artist whose education emerged out of an immersive 5 year period of meditation and self discovery. In 2009 he visited the Kangra valley, India, where he spent months meditating in the cave of Baba Sant Ram. This experience gave birth to a prolific period of creative and philosophical inquiry. Ever since his work has been rooted in the esoteric, and has paid reverence to mystical traditions across the...

Artwork