Nadia Khawaja
dal 8/6/2011 al 21/7/2011
Segnalato da
8/6/2011
Nadia Khawaja
Thomas Erben Gallery, New York
Contrary to the miniature based, politically slanted figuration usually associated with contemporary Pakistani art, Khawaja has developed a personal, abstract vocabulary in drawing, while finding physical world equivalents to her concepts in photography and video. Displayed side by side, the different works attest to the artist's interest in relationships between control and surrender, rationality and spirituality, as well as presence and timelessness.
Thomas Erben Gallery is pleased to present the first US solo exhibition of
Lahore-based Nadia Khawaja (b. 1977, Lahore), whose work was first seen in the
gallery as part of New Art from Pakistan, Jan-Feb, 2010. Contrary to the miniature
based, politically slanted figuration usually associated with contemporary Pakistani
art, Khawaja has developed a personal, abstract vocabulary in drawing, while finding
physical world equivalents to her concepts in photography and video. Displayed side
by side, the different works attest to the artist’s interest in relationships
between control and surrender, rationality and spirituality, as well as presence and
timelessness.
Khawaja executes her black felt-tip pen drawings on often large-scale (up to 8’ x
5’) sheets of paper. Part daily routine, part meditation, her work appears to
sublimate interior as well as exterior conditions, growing increments of small
details into sometimes full-blown fields, sometimes unifying structures. Drawn by
hand with a high degree of precision, her lines take on angular, organic or loopy
vectors, shaping into swirls, grids or geometry. It is important for Khawaja to
enter into a certain rhythm, leaving behind rationality, and to create a space
rather than an image, a vision more than an idea, a human capacity rather than a
human story.
Khawaja’s videos are equally sensitive, transmuting external forces and sounds into
“mark-making.” In Light Sleep, street and car noises punctuate and draw upon the
rhythm of breathing and gentle tree-filtered light on the artist’s face. Similarly,
Flesh It Out employs the mounting vibrations and sound of an auto rickshaw to
hauntingly blur Khajawa’s steady stare at the camera. Unlike the drawings, in which
Khawaja seems to exist wholly in her own body, the videos show her engaging with
elemental forces.
In many ways, Khawaja’s work resembles the account of a life or of many lives,
summarizing the whole while detailing everyday stutters.
Nadia Khawaja received her BFA in 2001 from the National College of Arts, Lahore,
studying abroad in 2000 at the Ecole d’Art, Aix-en-Provence, France. She had a solo
exhibition with Grey Noise, Lahore, which traveled to The JamJar, Dubai, 2009.
Reviews appeared in Time Out Dubai, Asian Art News, and Pakistan’s Daily News, to
name a few. Most recently, her work was included in No More Bad Girls? Kunsthalle
Exnergasse, Vienna, curated by Claudia Marion Stemberger and Kathrin Becker.
This exhibition is in collaboration with Grey Noise, Lahore, Pakistan.
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 9, 6-8:30 pm
Thomas Erben Gallery
526 West 26th Street, floor 4 New York, NY 10001