PRESS RELEASE*
Talha Rathore and Hasnat Mehmood
LAHORE LOVELIES
Aicon Gallery, London
22 June – 15 July 2007
Opening reception, June 22, 6-9pm
This exhibition is shown in collaboration with Sameera Raja of Canvas Gallery, Karachi
Miniature painting, the centuries-old atelier practice of the Mughal Empire, has had an impressive resurgence in recent years. Pakistan's oldest art school, the National College of Arts, has led this rekindled interest with one of the only Miniature Painting departments in existence. Artists Talha Rathore and Hasnat Mehmood, along with a handful of highly-acclaimed graduates, have reinvented the tradition by breathing new life and creating a distinctly contemporary context to the form. Without state patronage to adhere to, the new wave of this movement has witnessed an innovative approach to the miniature: its contemporary counterpart incorporates a myriad of sources, without losing its allegiance to the rigorous training of historicist styles and techniques. Today, the experimental play offers ways to appreciate its history by pushing the boundaries of tradition in addressing contemporary society. Miniature painting is one of the region's most significant artforms again.
Talha Rathore (b. 1969) and Hasnat Mehmood (b. 1978) have unique, individual slants to their practice. Both artists have developed their freedom to improvise (an option not afforded by dictatorial Imperial courts), but retain a political charge to their strategies. The visuals may appear subtle in subject matter – either in the organic forms created by Rathore or the restrained colours and appropriated imagery of Mehmood's, but strong underpinnings of innate political issues are evident in their reading. Considering the multi-layered history of Pakistan, colonisation followed by partition, then nationhood, such foundations formulate an acute sense of past and present in the artists' respective themes and motifs.
Talha Rathore lives and works in New York and her approach is drawn from a personal dialogue on diasporic identity. Decorative borders are outlined by the city's subway maps, ironically superimposed by organic forms which serve as metaphors for the nostalgia of one's roots. The seductive colours pulsate with vigour adding to the layered narrative of migration and personal experiences. Rathore has exhibited internationally: select shows include Gendering Details, 2006 (Art Square Gallery, Toronto, Canada); Beyond Borders, 2005 (National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India); Pakistan Another Vision (2000, UK tour including the Brunei Gallery, London; Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow) and the Hong Kong Art Centre Gallery (1997). Awards include the UNESCO Bursary for Young Artists, 1997 (Sanskrit Academy, New Delhi, India).
Hasnat Mehmood lives and works in Lahore and is a lecturer at the Miniature Department at the National College of Arts. Mehmood revises the medium of traditional miniatures by employing new substances, such as found printed materials, and his approach is tranquil, almost poetic and philosophical in its rendering. The use of grids evokes the original format of miniature as part of a manuscript, and Mehmood's signature motif of a profiled, turbaned bust on a stamp comments on the abuses of power. The series 'Original Image May Vary' in this exhibition attempts to illustrate the contradictions of images that do not necessarily reflect the realities of a story or situation. Select exhibitions include Beyond the Page: Contemporary Art from Pakistan, 2006 (Asia House, London and Manchester Art Gallery, UK); Partitions: Contemporary Art from India and Pakistan, 2006 (HTNB Architecture, Washington D.C.); Transcendent contemplations, 2004 (Green Cardamom at Hosains, London); Playing with a Loaded Gun, 2003 (Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany); Contemporary Miniatures from Pakistan, 2003 (K3 Project Space, Zurich) and Miniatures Pakistanaises, 2003 (Maison d'Art Contemporain Chaillioux, France).
Both artists exhibited in the highly-acclaimed touring exhibition Karkhana, A Contemporary Collaboration, 2005-2007 (touring, 2007: Asia Society and Museum, New York; 2006: Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; 2005/06: The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, USA;) and in Contemporary Miniature Paintings from Pakistan, 2004 (Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan).
Aicon Gallery are delighted to invite Hammad Nasar, Curator of Karkhana, to give a talk exclusively on the artists and their work on Wednesday June 20th.
For more information or to purchase these works, please contact Farah Rahim Ismail
at london@aicongallery.com or call +44 (0) 20-7734-7575.