Rasheed Araeen's show In Lights brings his self-contained neon works to Aicon Gallery

Aicon presents Rasheed Araeen's solo art exhibition, In Lights, on view from July 17 – August 23, 2025. The Karachi-born, London-based conceptual artist will showcase recent paintings and wall structures, centred around two brand-new neon works. Using ultramarine blue and black backgrounds, Araeen paints geometric interpretations of the word 'Allah' in vivid colours, echoing the visual effect of glowing neon. These abstract compositions challenge Western-centric narratives by reclaiming geometric and calligraphic abstraction as global practices with rich, non-European histories.

"With a career spanning over six decades, including six solo exhibitions at Aicon's New York gallery, Araeen's In Lights brings together his iconic geometric wall structures with new and innovative works, showing that this minimalist master has no sign of slowing down," says Aicon Gallery in a press release.

Scattered throughout the gallery are texts written by and about Araeen, displayed on his signature blocks. A prolific writer and editor, Araeen began publishing in the 1970s to address the lack of representation of non-white artists in Britain. His journals Black Phoenix (1973) and Third Text (1978) became foundational platforms for engaging with issues of race, post-colonial identity and the geopolitics of art.

As part of In Lights, Aicon will also host a book launch and reception to celebrate Araeen's 2024 publication Art and Institutional Racism. The book calls for a radical redefinition of modernism and a liberation of art history from its Eurocentric moorings. "In this collection of essays, Araeen confronts the British art galleries and institutions that excluded his work and made it 'extremely difficult to communicate meaningfully and exchange ideas'," says Aicon in an official release.

The recent rehang of MoMA's galleries has placed Araeen's work in dialogue with artists such as Donald Judd and Eva Hesse, challenging the ethnic barriers, neocolonialism and imperialist attitudes that Araeen has long confronted through both his contemporary art and writing. His work is also held in the collections of major institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and the Yale Centre for British Art.

"Araeen articulates a critical stance that situates abstraction as both culturally specific and universally accessible, drawing attention to the two-way permeable boundaries between artistic traditions across cultures," adds Aicon.