Studio
An account of the work, put together from his posts and from published sources. His own words are quoted; the rest is not his.
My aim is to get the viewer interested in the piece by the appearance of the artwork. Then the letters. Lastly one will make an effort to read the piece, which will lead to finding out what it means. So my aim is to connect people to the Qur'an through my art, and hopefully through the Qur'an to Allah. Shakeel Tariq, December 2018
He added, in the same post: I think all of us get so caught up in this material world and tend to get distracted from the next life and what success really is. A verse like this serves as a good reminder to someone like me and pull me back on track… till I forget again.
The shape argues the meaning
He does not decorate a verse. He builds the composition out of what the verse says, and then tells you how. He has done it, in writing, at least eleven times between 2013 and 2021.
A circle, because the sūra opens on the First and the Last. A heart, because the verse is about love placed between husband and wife. Two joined circles, because two attributes are named but Allah (Most High) is one. Orange and an exploded structure, because the heavens and the earth were split apart. Green, because money is green and people love it. Letters half hidden, because tahajjud performed in secret is more sincere. One letter cut deliberately incomplete, because his own servanthood is incomplete.
And once, the opposite: a wall of letters with no words at all, so that the script could be looked at rather than read.
A hand of his own
In 2015 he named a classical script — a piece cut from 12mm plywood, in Diwani. In 2018 he described a composition as a modern style designed by me, and explained why he had inverted the traditional gold-on-black. By February 2024 he had a name for the hand itself, and used it plainly: I have written some names of Allah in my khat Shakeeli.
His training is on the record, though not in his own words. In 2017 the United Muslim Migrants Association introduced him this way: he studied Arabic calligraphy as part of a course in Islamic studies, has completed a course in cabinet making, and combines a background in street art with both.
Three trades, named by someone else — and it matches an archive that opens in 2012 with a sprayed abstract, starts building furniture in 2013, and names a classical hand in 2015.
SBS Urdu reached the same description independently, nearly a decade later: an artist who brings together Arabic calligraphy, graffiti street art and woodcraft, born and raised in Australia, working from a Pakistani and Indian heritage. — SBS Urdu, "From a graffiti enthusiast to a master calligrapher", Shadi Khan Saif
In the studio
Paint marker, spray paint and roller paint. MDF, plywood, walnut and pine. Clear perspex, glass, vinyl, 3D print. Laser cut, hand cut, or cut apart and put back together. Recycled timber wherever it will do the job.
In print, and on air
Third-party sources only — not his own description of himself.
| Year | Source | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | The Age | Names him for the Islamic Museum of Australia's water tanks, "painted with 'calligraffiti' … stating the museum's motto: Art, Heritage and Discovery" |
| 2014 | SBS News | The same tanks, in a broadcast segment |
| 2015 | Islamic Museum of Australia | His work shown in the 99 Names for 99 Days exhibition |
| 2015 | Al Wasat | The exhibition on the front page, his pieces pictured |
| 2016 | Moreland City Council | "with local artist Shakeel Tariq" |
| 2018 | Islamic Museum of Australia | "Acclaimed Melbourne Artist, Shakeel Tariq" — on their own workshop poster |
| 2018 | ISRA Australia | "Ustadh Shakeel Tariq" |
| 2019 | ISRA Australia | "professional Arabic Calligrapher Shakeel Tariq" |
| 2019 | Islamic Council of Victoria | "the Acclaimed Melbourne Artist, Shakeel Tariq" — the same phrase the museum used a year earlier |
| 2018 | Benevolence Australia | His calligraphy at BeneHouse, six years on: the verse it carries still described as shaping their approach to community service |
| 2018 | Islamic Council of Victoria | "Calligraphy and graffiti artist Shakeel at work in the ICV" — posted while he was still painting |
| 2020 | LETTERFORM, Revolver Upstairs | Listed among some thirty-five letterform practitioners |
| 2020 | Stuff, New Zealand | "Melbourne artist creates panels with message of peace at Al Noor mosque" — Oliver Lewis, 11 March 2020. He travelled to Christchurch and made a series of panels carrying a teaching of the Prophet |
| 2020 | Newshub, New Zealand | His work in a national television report marking a year since the attacks — his own claim; the broadcast itself unconfirmed |
| 2020 | Leonard Joel, Melbourne | An untitled 2019 work offered at auction — his first recorded appearance in the auction market |
| 2024 | Arabic Language Centre Australia | Billed on their own poster as a Melbourne-based calligrapher who blends cultural heritage with modern style |
| 2022 | Al Wasat | A Ramadan design of his published in the magazine — seven years after the same paper put the 99 Names exhibition on its front page |
| 2025 | Islamic Museum of Australia | Live collaborative artwork with Aimee McCartney at the museum's annual gala dinner, auctioned the same evening |
| 2026 | SBS Urdu | "From a graffiti enthusiast to a master calligrapher: Shakeel Tariq's artistic journey" — a podcast profile by Shadi Khan Saif, on the national broadcaster |
Giving work away
Pieces donated to auction for the Al Kauthar Institute and for an orphanage in Indonesia; framed work donated as prizes for maktab students; ten dollars of every thirty-five dollar workshop ticket sent to a children's program. The earliest instance is a batch of work carried to a fundraising dinner in Sydney in 2013.