Islam & Print 2026 Cohort Announcement | Aurora Suryah

As a trans-nonbinary artist with a very untraditional relationship to Islam, it’s an honor to participate in this fellowship and find kinship with such a dynamic cohort of artists and stewards. I came into this fellowship during my first intentional observance of Ramadan after years of maintaining a healthy distance from Islam because of my disappointing and traumatic experiences with the Nation of Islam. Your experience with spiritual practice and your experiences with the people around it require discernment and separation from the person you are within that practice, and finding my way back to Islam (in my own way) has been such a needed nourishment, personally and professionally.

Within this fellowship, I’m looking to expand a design and art-making methodology that reinforces the use of my art practice as a proxy for my spiritual practice. The work I’m planning and the references I’m gathering and leaning into are conceptual and esoteric compositions that embody the work itself as a type of altar or spiritual practice space for myself and others to interrogate or even immerse themselves in the power of what it means to have a practice of any kind, domestically or artistically. The audacity of self-identifying as an artist gives me enough credentials to dismantle the world that has been built around me, and I want the work I’m developing to give others permission to build their own world to.

Traditional print-making is a new vessel for this work, and both Dan and Safiyah have been amazing stewards through the start of this program, and I’m excited to continue sharing this journey. If it is within your means, I would encourage and appreciate it if you considered becoming a sustaining patron of this work by joining the Suryah Studio Patreon for as low as $3. Though this is a labor of love, love alone is not a currency I can exchange for my landlord or material suppliers. If being a sustaining monthly patron is not the best option for you right now, I would encourage you to consider making a one-time donation to Suryah Studio via the link below:

https://checkout.square.site/merchant/ML4H0GZB74PW0/checkout/QVZWXGI4X53S5OU4V5LR5PWM

Islam & Print (I&P) is a printmaking fellowship co-founded by artists Safiyah Cheatam and Dan Flounders in 2022. The mission of I&P is to champion diverse Muslim experiences and strengthen career readiness by building a network of regional, emerging visual artists of all mediums through our biennial fellowship in Baltimore, MD. We aim to build an archive of contemporary Muslim artwork.

Learn more about Islam & Print: https://islamandprint.com/

Special thank you to the Grit Fund and Making Space Bmore!!

Special thank you to my cohort of fellows:

★ Shiraz Abdullahi Gallab (Philadelphia, PA)

★ Waad Husein (Rockville, MD)

★ Katie Shlon (Baltimore, MD)