PRESS RELEASE
I Love Miniature I Hasnat Mahmood
9 July – August 1st
Reception Wednesday 8 July, 6pm – 8pm
This summer, Aicon New York will present a new body of work by Pakistani artist Hasnat
Mahmood.
Having trained at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Mahmood's oeuvre is a revision of
the Miniaturist technique and its role within the cultural heritage of Pakistan. Nonetheless, his
approach is tranquil, almost poetic and philosophical in its rendering. Using the Miniaturist
processes to create his works, Mahmood stretches and reframes the boundaries of what
Miniaturist means, freeing the technique of both the weight of its history and current
perspectives of what it 'should' be.
I Love Miniature consists of fourteen works that explore the miniature painting movement as
it has evolved in Pakistan over the last two decades. The paintings are copies of the works of
some of Pakistan's best-known miniaturist practitioners of today. By reproducing them so,
Mahmood references the criticism that miniaturist painting consists merely of the copying of
works from the past: by choosing only to reproduce in each case a specific section of the
chosen work, the artist appropriates them for himself in a way that is wholly contemporary.
Furthermore, Mahmood spells out in Braille the title and full details of each piece on top of
the image it depicts - obscuring the image by the communication of its components - as if to
say that the viewer is blind to the work's actual appearance and guided only by what its label
might say.
Back to Basics is a series of digital prints and drawings on scratchboard and paper composed
only of lines and circles - the fundamental components of all images – now enlarged and
giving the 'miniature' the central emphasis. In Pop-Art, Mahmood combines traditional
miniature imagery with pop-art techniques of production and presentation. With Miniature
painting today fast becoming popular amongst connoisseurs and specialists, the artist is
punning on the idea of 'pop' and 'popular' and showing how the modern and the traditional
can co-exist.
Notes to Editors
Hasnat Mahmood lives and works in Lahore and is a lecturer at the Miniature Department at
the National College of Arts.
Select exhibitions include Original Image May Vary, Chawkandi Gallery, Karachi in 2008;
Lahore Lovelies, Aicon Gallery, London, 2007; Between Two worlds; Group show at Croweaters
Gallery, Lahore, Landscape: Places real and imagined, Group show at Alhamra
Gallery, Lahore; 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).
Forthcoming exhibitions at Aicon New York include works by Farida Batool, opening 1
September 2009.
For further press information and visuals, please contact Rachel Phillipps at Pickles PR
Tel: +44 (0)783 490 4571/ e-mail: rachel@picklespr.com
Aicon New York is open 10am – 6.30pm Tuesday - Saturday
Tel: +1 212 725 6092 / email: newyork@aicongallery.com
Aicon Gallery, 35 Great Jones Street, New York, NY 10012
Tel: +1 212 725 5092, newyork@aicongallery.com
www.aicongallery.com