Saipher Zureti
artist & writer
Saipher Zureti is a multi-disciplinary artist and writer from Chicago. He holds a bachelor's degree in graphic design and is self-taught in digital portraiture and multi-script calligraphy. He publishes the Substack Black Radical Reflections, where his essays on identity, power, and decolonization extend the same questions his portraits ask.
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THE TAO OF I
Within each portrait lies a profound reflection of self, a mirror that unveils the essence of who we are. In the eyes and expressions of these subjects, I find echoes of my own soul, for every portrait is a self-portrait. Each figure embarks on an internal quest, a search for equilibrium by emptying the mind and embracing the serenity that births entire worlds. In darkness, the seed of transformation takes root. We journey inward so we may exist outwardly, unencumbered by clouded thoughts and restless anxieties, liberated from the pains of yesterday and the fears of tomorrow. We find solace in the effortless state of pure existence. This is the portrait series, The Tao of I.
CALLIGRAPHY
My calligraphy work spans Arabic, Amharic, Tibetan, Chinese, and Urdu scripts, carrying the writing of poems, prayers, and proverbs from the cultures that produced them. Some compositions are ambigrams, readable from more than one orientation. Others are abstract.
SACRED SYMBOLS
This series explores ancient symbols that have withstood the test of time. I draw from ancestral visual systems across Africa, the Islamic world, and Buddhist tradition. Each pattern I create holds a purpose, and the meaning reveals itself through the making.