London: Shared Light Exhibition | ICN

Hospitality of Abraham-After Rublev, 2025 Meg Wroe

‘Shared Light’ is London’s first inter-faith art exhibition, and a new dimension to the Aziz Foundation’s London Ramadan Lights programme, initiated three years ago. Situated in the Zedwell hotel’s basement café near Piccadilly Circus, the entrance is in The Trocadero Arcade, but currently quite hard to find due to building works and extensive scaffolding.

Eventually finding the exhibition, the café presents an opportunity for refreshments at very reasonable prices served by the friendly Melet, before exploring the reflective paintings.

Artist Raheel Khan, said: “I am thrilled to be curating this exhibition for The Aziz Foundation and to contribute to a project that celebrates shared humanity, the exhibition creates space for reflection, dialogue and moments of unexpected connection between visitors.”

Artists were invited to submit works reflecting shared religious values in the community. Twenty artists contributions are exhibited representative of the three Abrahamic faiths and Buddhism.

The free exhibition opened at the beginning of Ramadan and concludes on 22 March.

Retired librarian John Woodhouse studied Christianity and Interfaith relations at Heythrop College and in 2013 founded Westminster Cathedral ‘s interfaith group. His oil on canvas ‘Desperate to Land,’ depicting the plight of children and families sailing in a perilous dinghy to seek refuge was previously exhibited at an exhibition at Farm Street Church.

Meg Wroe has created a series of icons inspired by Rublev’s ‘The Hospitality of Abraham’, the Biblical account of hospitality to strangers who turned out to be angels. She asked three refugees of differing heritage, including a Muslim woman, to sit for the angels in her latest representation. Painted in acrylic and gold leaf on vibrant green and multi coloured fabric from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country one of the models originated from. It highlights the saying that in offering hospitality to strangers we may be entertaining angles unaware.

A particularly luminous drawing is ‘Candle of Hope’ by Chinese Christian Alan Ying, of a face deep in contemplation, illumined by a single candlelit flame. Worked in charcoal on paper it produces an image of radiant reflection, sign of hope and inspirational light in the darkness.

Using Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas ‘The Flow of Mercy’ by Islamic artist Faaizah Shaban depicts strong hands emerging downwards through the clouds ,cupping flowing water that also encapsulates a Sufi mystic dancing in the palm of the Divine. The everlasting water descends into a pool and bathes a prostrated figure deep in prayer and nourishes the ground where three flowers have burst into bloom.

It has Christian resonances of Eden and Christ as the Living Water, and Jewish and Christian Wisdom literature ‘.

‘The Garden of the Soul’ in poplar plywood exemplifies Islamic art and geometry in an intricate, layered design, laser cut and hand finished by Mohammed Aaqib Anvarmia. Differing wood stains add colour to the raised flower and leaf detail.

Jewish artist Beverley-Jane Stewart contributes three works, montages of the changing scenes of Jewish life in Britain. ‘Adapting to Change’ 2026 reflects on Jewish life in Cheetham Hill. ‘The Story of the East End of London’ 2005, places synagogues, markets and civic buildings within a shared urban history shaped by migration and cooperation.

Italian painter and sculptor Marcello Silvestri is well known internationally. His work draws inspiration from Mediterranean landscapes, reflecting on faith and ecology. The print of his ‘Abraham Counting the Stars’ 1995, illustrates the common roots of the three monotheistic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The outsized stars are highlighted by a rainbow sunset emphasising God’s promise that Abraham’s descendants shall be as multitudinous as the stars. The picture was selected for the poster of the 26th edition of the Religion Today Film Festival in 2023 .

One of the first of Marcello’s abstract works ‘Logos – The Word”,2013, is a tri-dimensional piece on board with paint, sand and wooden applications, is also exhibited. Reflecting on the Word of God that emerges from ancient sacred texts and symbols as well as from the Jewish-Christian tradition, it was selected by the Gregorian University Press for the poster celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2013.

Ramadan and Lent coincide this year, so this exhibition has an added significance in the turmoil of world conflicts for people of faith to gain a shared inspiration through the reflective light of art.

For more information see: www.azizfoundation.org.uk/the-aziz-foundation-launches-open-call-for-central-londons-first-interfaith-art-exhibition/