Quasi-Crystalline Manifestations II Opens in Istanbul

Istanbul artist Mehmet Sah Maltas has opened “Quasi-Crystalline Manifestations II,” a solo show that turns medieval Islamic geometric patterns into modern art. The exhibition runs at Kadirga Art Galleries until 15 January 2027. It presents 16 works built on tile designs that never repeat at regular intervals, yet remain strictly ordered.

Visitors can see five large pieces, each measuring 198 by 198 centimetres (78 by 78 inches). Small preparatory sketches show how the works developed.

What the Istanbul exhibition shows

Ten of the 16 works were already shown in Maltas’s 2022 Istanbul exhibition, “Quasi-Crystalline Works.” That is why the new show carries “II” in its title.

Two large pieces, “Work 14” and “Work 15,” were made in Urbino, Italy. They were displayed there during the “Metaverso Raffaello” events. Türkiye Today reports that this is their first showing in Türkiye.

The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Monday.

Quasi-crystal patterns and Islamic architecture

Maltas says the term “quasi-crystal” comes from science. He points to a research paper by Peter Lu and Paul Steinhardt on medieval Islamic architecture. The paper uses the word for tile patterns that do not repeat periodically but are still tightly structured.

In these systems, he explains, small tile units build up larger ones through a process called subdivision. “Most of my works are based on these pattern systems and their structural foundations,” he said.

For the title he chose the Turkish word “tezahur,” meaning appearing or coming into view. He wanted to give artistic form to his mental images and feelings, starting from a scientific and mathematical idea.

What the research says, and what it leaves open

Lu and Steinhardt published their paper in the journal Science in 2007. They argued that by the 15th century, craftsmen had combined girih tiles with self-similar subdivision to make nearly perfect quasi-crystalline patterns. Girih tiles are a set of five shapes, each marked with a decorative line pattern.

A key piece of evidence is a 15th-century scroll held at Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul. Its drawings outline the tile shapes. Maltas notes that this scroll and Islamic tilings have drawn scientific study, and that the patterns resemble tiling systems developed by British physicist Roger Penrose.

The research also has limits. Lu himself said the evidence cannot show for certain what the geometry meant to its makers. It does not settle whether they understood it as formal mathematics or used it as a practical drawing method. Maltas, for his part, reads the patterns as proof of an advanced grasp of mathematics.

He also finds it inspiring that contemporary science now uses tilings like those in Islamic architecture to represent the geometry of newly discovered crystals.

Source: Türkiye Today
Featured image: Muslim Heritage