Queer sexuality in Islamic art explored in Norway exhibition – The Art Newspaper

A brand new exhibition opening on the Nationwide Museum (Nasjonalmuseet) of Norway in Oslo this week breaks new floor by exploring a difficult artwork historic topic: queer wishes and practices within the visible cultures of the Islamic world. Deviant Ornaments (27 November-15 March 2026)—curated by Noor Bhangu, a South Asian curator and scholar primarily based in Norway—brings collectively greater than 40 works from the previous 1,000 years, connecting historic traditions and objects with the works of 12 modern artists akin to London-born Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Toronto-based Alize Zorlutuna.

Artist Shahzia Sikander’s bronze figures, Promiscuous Intimacies (2020) mix South Asian and European traditions, depicting an Eleventh-century sandstone sculpture of a Devata, a divine deity, and the determine of Venus from Agnolo Bronzino’s An Allegory with Venus and Cupid (1540-46). Turkish artist Taner Ceylan’s Faux World portray (2011) exhibits a semi-nude male determine clad in a gold gown.

“Our hope is to visualise a queer family tree of Islamic artwork historical past, by which the general public positive factors perception into various cultures of sexuality which have unfolded throughout the historic and modern Islamic world. Within the modern Islamic world, we’re additionally bringing into relation queer diasporas throughout North America, Europe and different components of the world,” Bhangu tells The Artwork Newspaper.

The exhibition timespan covers a millennium as a result of “the over-reliance on modern works [in other projects and exhibitions]… means that homosexuality and queer wishes are solely the merchandise of the present postcolonial period [and] thus inheritors of solely Western fashions of sexuality”, provides Bhangu.

Historic objects featured embody a Safavid textile by an unknown artist (1567); Ali Ghulam Khanezad’s Armband with gold and enamel inlay (round 1820), which depicts Prince Tahmasp Mirza, grandson of the ruling 18th-century Fath Ali Shah in Iran; and two wall tiles relationship from Thirteenth-century Iran, drawn from the Nationwide Museum’s assortment.

The present additionally contains 4 commissioned works by France-born Damien Ajavon, the efficiency artist Rah Eleh, the Iranian artist Kasra Jalilipour and Ohio-based Sa’dia Rehman. Ajavon’s textile set up, Chemin vers Oslo (2025), and a Nineteenth-century embossed gold belt buckle with the Hand of Fatima displays the “palpable” relationship between historic and modern Islamic artwork, says Bhangu.

“Ajavon has included a number of small Fingers of Fatima into their work, a few of which I introduced again from my go to to Pakistan as a relational gesture. Most of Damien’s ornaments are silver, making a compelling distinction with the Nineteenth-century work, by which we are able to visualise each the continuities and discontinuities between the passing down of inventive and symbolic traditions.”

Queer depictions in Islamic artwork are thought of delicate as a result of homosexuality is taken into account taboo, and in lots of circumstances unlawful, in most Muslim communities. The present goals to enlighten audiences, highlighting points round non secular sensitivities. “When non secular parts are launched by the dissemination of the works, like references to Sufism or the protecting motif of the Hand of Fatima, we’re clear about situating these inside a historic and cultural context, not solely in a non secular one,” says Bhangu.

There are some works within the exhibition that contact on traumatic or tough histories, akin to Orientalist depictions of racialised folks, she provides. “I feel it is very important embody these colonial references as a result of Orientalist narratives had an unlimited affect on native cultures of sexuality within the Islamic world.

“When folks from the Islamic world noticed these visible depictions and textual supplies primarily based on journey accounts, they felt disgrace… this resulted in erasure of homoerotic pasts and the straightening of homoerotic archives; take for instance wine poetry or ghazals devoted to joys of homoerotic need.”

Ingrid Røynesdal, the director of the Nationwide Museum, says in an announcement: “Museums have to be areas of curiosity, studying and debate; with this exhibition, we proudly open that house to the world.” Bhangu stresses that Deviant Ornaments is a “love letter” to queer relations throughout geographies and generations.

Deviant Ornaments, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, 27 November-15 March 2026