Rasheed Araeen's body of work has profound influence on generations of artists, writers and thinkers. The exhibition is structured across five chapters; Araeen;s early experiments paintin in Karachi in the 50s and 60s, geometric structures of 1964, key pieces in the 70s and 80s following political awakening, nine panel cruciforms from the 80s and 90s and also new geometric paintings and wall structures. 

In the Beginning: This part of the exhibit shows the early experiments in painting, drawing and sculpture.  These pieces were produced whilst he was living in Karachi, depicts the places and people of Pakistan's most populous city. In the late 50s he explored abstraction, using geometric forms such as squares and triangles and working from memory and the imagination, rather than directly from life. He also became fascinated by the idea of fluidity, movement and transformation embodied in water and fire which is evident in his use of curved lines.These interests became a well played formative role in his art work. 

Geometry and Symmetry: The second part of his exhibition explores geometry and symmetry, following from his arrival to London in 1964. Araeen had seen the coloured metal sculptures of Anthony Caro, which was said to of had a strong effect on him. In his own minimalist language however, drew on his experience as an engineer and his interest in geometry and symmetry. The interest stemmed from its lack of hierarchy with one side always being equal to the other. The come the end of the 1960s Rasheed Araeen became fascinated by the relationship between symmetry and asymmetry, which he saw to define conditions of the world. 

Becoming Political: By 1971 Rasheed had become disillusioned with the endemic racism in Britain and its art establishment. When he joined the Black Panthers movement1972 he then actively took part in the group Artists for Democracy, which was formed by David Medalla in 1972. His artwork started to incorporate collage, photography, installation, performance, writing and editing. Formal and conceptual concerns remained, such as the use of the grid and series format and the continued use of geometric structures in his work. From 1975 Rasheed Araeen started to use his own image, body and the format of self-portraiture as the focus of his investigation into representation.

In Pursuit of a Significant Language: In the 80s and 90s he found an aesthetic language that brought together his investigations into abstraction and geometry with his political concerns. With his lattice reliefs, cube structures and the use of monochrome were combined with photo-montages that drew on images of the artist himself or referenced contemporary sociopolitical events. In the mis-1980s Rasheed Araeen focused on the Cruciform series. In this series he used the cross, the colour green (a significant colour in the Islamic culture) and the range of references create what has been described as a 'complex allegorical space', charting opposing but dependent ideologies and views of the world.

Homecoming: Homecoming series was presented along side the recent Opus paintings, which take their starting point from names of intellectuals and mathematicians from the Abbasid era (750-1258 AD), the golden era of Islamic thinking. Calligraphy is treated within the formal language of painterly abstraction. Araeen's recent painting redirects modernism away from the West in the 20th century, repositioning in historically and geographically.  The paintings are accompanied by two new lattice structures referencing Kiev-born artist, Kazimir Malevich's Black Square 1913.