Dr Sulaiman Esa is perhaps one of the most ‘spiritual’ Malaysian artists around. This is because his works are usually very much inspired by the Islamic values and its calligraphic strokes and technique. He is known to be one of the earliest and perhaps the few artists who follow a strict guideline of producing art with Islamic principles. The artist came about during the 1980s when the government of Malaysia in its effort to promote Islamic values within the Malay and Muslim community drew many initiatives in the Islamic programme in 1982. This was then Islamic art from Malaysia started gaining notice and recognition in the country and abroad.

Although Islamic calligraphy was already in existence and was adopted by many modern artists, it was only after the programmes had taken off that modern art in Malaysia began embracing the body of work that encircles around this faith. Dr Sulaiman Esa’s work was best manifested during this time when he wanted to inject an internationalist and multicultural frames that draw inspirations and design from the fundamentals of Islam to be used in contemporary art form. As one of the pioneers of promoting the production of contemporary art using Islamic principles, Dr Sulaiman is recognized as one of the most visionary artists in the Malaysian scene.