Renowned artist Mouneer Al Shaarani is using his calligraphic art to inspire the people of Syria, who face daily turmoil in their war-torn country.

The master calligrapher, who has made the ancient Arabic tradition evolve from its religious roots, is creating deeply intellectual work that reflects his interest in modern poetry and literature, alongside Christian and Sufi philosophy. Known for his work in contemporary Arab calligraphy, Al Shaarani has become popular for his innovative and scholarly advancements of the traditional calligraphic script.
His work reflects the perfection attained through pioneering dimensions. In addition to working as a consultant for the International Arab Encyclopedia, Al Shaarani has also published tutorials and articles about Arab calligraphy and Arab Islamic Art.

Al Shaarani's work, which has been exhibited in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Switzerland, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Yugoslavia, India, Great Britain and the USA, will soon be shown for the first time in Australia at Sydney's Mils Gallery. It may be noted that the artist was refused a visa to attend his show. The artwork has been acquired by iconic institutions such as the Reitberg Museum in Zurich, Museum of Contemporary Art in Tunisia, Museum of Red Cross in Geneva, Museum of Islamic Art in Malaysia and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cairo. His works are also hung in private collections in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Amman, Qatar and Bahrain.

Despite the upheaval in Syria, Al Shaarani has said he remains dedicated to his nation's destiny. "The situation is very bad, but it's my country, I feel at this time, I must not leave it. Before, I was living outside, but now I feel I must stay, live and work in order to inspire," he told The National in a 2015 interview.

Mounir Al- Shaarani has lived and working in Cairo, Egypt. He was born in Syria in 1952 and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 1977. He studied under the great Syrian calligrapher Badawi Al Dirany. He has worked as a calligrapher and book designer since 1968. He has designed several custom typefaces such as those that were used on his own book covers and personal work. His work has been exhibited internationally; he is highly regarded everywhere for introducing uniquely innovative calligraphic styles and for taking his inspiration from everything around him, both old and new.

Though his work is steeped in tradition, Mouneer Al Shaarani strives to bring the ancient tradition of Arabic lettering, in particular the once-obscured geometric style of Kufic writing, into a modern context. The Cairo-based artist is considered a master of the art form because he seeks perfection with each line in his gouache and acrylic works on paper, creating compositions that seem to emanate from patterns and brushstrokes. The artist has said he hopes to free the form from its “golden cage...in order to find its prestigious place among the fine arts.”

Mouneer Al Shaarani worked as graphic designer prior to indulging his passion for Arabic calligraphy, with which he experimented in order to use it for various purposes. Al Shaarani worked on each letter as a term by itself, perfected throughout the ages by many artists who attained high levels of beauty. They arrived at arithmetical and geometrical standards and rules. The layouts they employed were as diverse as the cultures in the Arab world, from east to west. Al Shaarani resumes this long development with a refined artistic sense, and a vast knowledge of the history of Arabic calligraphy that is now modernized. He has revived many of the forgotten layouts, finding some in old manuscripts. He has devoted special attention to the aesthetics of the lines used by potters, weavers and architects on different shores. Al Shaarani ventured into shaping letters that he modelled out of diverse layouts. Layouts, he thought, contained an essence that he could suggest as an addition to the aesthetic of these lines, despite their being distinct.

Furthermore, Al Shaarani, as a graphic designer, had to treat each letter as a term that led to a word or text that he included in his designs as a geometrical mass in a dynamical reaction with other masses in the visual field of the design.
Within these two directions, embellishing the Arabic letters and widening the prospects of its use in new functions, the outline of the creative activity of Mouneer Al Shaarani is defined. Al Shaarani without a doubt will shake up the previously static Arabic tradition, in thought and practice, a tradition that has been unchanged for countless years.

Selected Exhibitions

2016 Arabic calligraphy compositions, Mils Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2015 ArtSpace, DIFC, Dubai, UAE
2014 Art on 56th, Beirut, Lebanon
2014 Art auction 101 works of Art for Syrian children refugees, Beirut, Lebanon
Art 14 London, Art on 56th, London, England
2013 Art space gallery, Dubai
Contemporary Istanbul, Art on 56th, Istanbul, Turkey
Art on 56th, Beirut, Lebanon
2011 Casa Arab Collective Exhibition, Madrid, Spain
Gallery Al Shaab, Homs, Syria
2010 Rafia collective exhibition, Damascus, Syria
2009 Ayyam gallery, collective exhibition, Damascus, Syria
Fogrth collective exhibition, Germany
2008 Ayyam gallery, Damascus, Syria
2007 Dar Al Anda, Amman, Jordan
2006 Art Space gallery, Dubai, UAE
“Word into Art”, the British Museum, England
Centre International de la poesie, Marseille, France
Al Jezirah Art center, Caire, Syria
2005 Gallery Attasy, Damascus, Syria
St. Jean college, Oxford, England
2004 Gallery Green Art, Dubai, UAE
2003-2005 Continuous mobil exhibition, USA
2002 Al Jezirah Art Center, Cairo, Egypt
Monza House, Muscat, Oman
Al Rouaq Al Baladi, Sfax, Tunisia
Gallery Al Sham, Aleppo, Syria
Gallery Green Art, Dubai, UAE
2001 Gallery Ishtar, Damascus, Syria Audiovisual collective exhibition,
Sharjah Art Museum, Emirates Arbes Unis, Sharjah, UAE
1999 7 Hills collective (Dream Hill), Berlin, Germany
Gallery Dar Albareh, Bahrain
Honorary exhibition, (Opera house), Cairo, Egypt
Cairo workshop, Cairo, Egypt
1998 Shawqi museum, Cairo, Egypt
Reitberg museum, Zurich, Switzerland
Gallery Caire- Berlin, Cairo, Egypt
1997 T hervantes center, Cairo, Egypt
1996 Atelier Cairo, Cairo, Egypt Rewaq Belal, Tunisia
1995 Gallery Al Saiyd, Damascus, Syria
1994-1995 Mobil exhibition in co-operation with International Red Cross,
Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan
1994 Cultural house, Abu Dhabi, UAE
1993 Cairo workshop, Cairo, Egypt
1992 Dar Al Fonoun, Tunisia

Awards
Modernization award at the First International Forum for Arabic calligraphy