Culture in Art

Fatmah Bamashmous ’18 MFA (Furniture Design), from Saudi Arabia, combines Arabic inspiration with traditional woodworking techniques, infusing her cultural heritage with contemporary functional furniture.

She was featured on the sixth episode of RIT City Art Space’s Artist Short Sesh interview series, explaining how she fits her culture in art.

“Since I come from a different culture than the U.S. I want to use my design language from where I came from,” she said. “Saudi Arabia is influenced by Islamic art and Islamic design. The language of Islamic art all came from the alphabet or the way they are writing, and also from geometric shapes. So I decided to take this language and create something that you can use inside the home environment.”