ABOUT OUR ARTISTS

Nicholas Pelafas (Saliou)

Nicholas Pelafas (Saliou) is an educator and co-founder of the West African Calligraphy Institute. He studied with the late Yelimane Fall and now has dedicated his life to community development through arts education through the cultural preservation of Arabic calligraphic forms indigenous to West Africa. He has worked at MOMA, Krannert Art Center, and now is actively raising funds to complete a research center in Senegal with the Fallou Fall, the artistic director of the WACI and son of the late Yelimane Fall.

Khalid Pablo Casado

Pablo Casado, was born in 1982 in Madrid, Spain, where he has lived and developed both personally and academically. He worked during several years in his family business, a pharmacy, run first by his grandfather and then by his father. Although he always felt a special attraction towards the shapes of Arabic calligraphy, it was not until 2008 when he contacted the reed pen for the first time, when he attended a brief introductory course to nesih calligraphy. Only a few days of practicing this art were enough to awaken a deep interest in him, and he soon felt the need to receive further instruction from a real master who could transmit him this ancient knowledge. It was at that point when he met Nuria García, the renowned calligrapher who later became his mentor and master. Guided by her, he traveled to Istanbul for the first time in 2009, and thanks to her he could get acquainted with her masters. This is how he started writing his first lessons with her help, and with the master calligrapher (hattat) Davut Bektas, and always under the supervision of the master Hassan Çelebi. Around two years later, he started taking lessons from the master hattat Ferhat Kurlu who, together with Nuria García, became one of his strongest influences. In 2014, and after having devoted himself completely to learning this art, he received his icazet or calligraphy diploma in sülüs and nesih styles in IRCICA (Research Center for Islamic History Art and Culture), signed by the masters Hassan Çelebi, Ferhat Kurlu and Nuria García. Currently, he continues traveling regularly to Istanbul and spending long periods there in order not to lose contact with his masters and with the purpose of continuing learning and refining his work.

biography from sacred-lines.com

Bahman Panahi

Franco-Iranian artist Bahman Panahi was born in 1967. He holds a Ph.D. in music and musicology, he is a visual artist, calligrapher and musician. At a very young age, he understood that calligraphy is a living art, where gesture is combined with rhythm in the search for balance and a consonant harmony, seeking to sublimate sentences, words and letters, whilst revealing their melodic dimension. This poetic conception led him naturally to highlight the resonances of calligraphy and music. Inspired by these two artistic practices, he has made them his vocation. From his teenage years onwards, he devoted his studies to that purpose. His studies took him to France, where he deepened his research and developed the concept of Musicalligraphy in his doctoral thesis at Sorbonne University. In his work, Bahman Panahi consistently endeavoured to bring out this conceptual dimension of calligraphy. This artistic practice, comprising both traditional and abstract calligraphic compositions, has allowed him to travel: exhibitions, concerts, artistic performances around the world, exchanges with international artists have all waymarked Bahman Panahi’s life and have lent him international prominence.

biography from bahmanpanahi.com

Born in Tehran, Iran, Behnaz Karjoo moved to the United States at a young age where she developed an interest in art. Her creative pursuits took a serious turn later in her life, when she started to study jewelry design and photography at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Inspired by her early memories of Iranian mosque architecture, illumination, and calligraphy, she soon pursued training in the classical Islamic arts. Under the mentorship of Mujgan Baskoylu, a distinguished master in Turkish illumination, miniature painting, and paper cutting, Behnaz began her study of illumination (tazhib) in 2011. Her dedication led her works to be exhibited worldwide, and in 2016, she earned her ijazet, a certificate of mastery in illumination. Expanding her artistic repertoire, Behnaz pursued the study of miniature painting in 2019, followed by an exploration of square kufic calligraphy in 2021. These continuous pursuits exemplify her commitment to enriching her knowledge and skill set within the realm of Islamic arts. Behnaz is an active participant in the New York Islamic Arts collective, founded by Mrs. Baskoylu, which is dedicated to preserving and promoting classical Islamic arts in the United States. In her artistic pursuits, Behnaz holds the belief that while classical arts, including illumination, have a timeless foundation, their potential for evolution and growth is boundless. She continually strives to present these art forms in innovative ways, embracing experimentation with diverse materials, colors, compositions, and designs.

biography from behnazkarjoo.com