Anwar Saeed and Saad Qureshi Host Solo Exhibitions At Aicon Gallery

Aicon Gallery is proud to present Habits of Being, our first solo exhibition by renowned artist, Anwar Saeed. The artist paints nocturnal scenes where mostly always male figures, alone, in pairs or in larger groups, seem involved in private acts, rituals and configurations. Some are clothed, some partially clothed - but it is not clear which state is more revealing. It is seemingly always twilight and the figures stand in a foreshortened foreground, sometimes on what almost appears to be a very narrow stage. The backgrounds are straightforward, although often there is a motif that seems to be symbolic - a tower, a fish, the moon.

In this new series Saeed investigates the ongoing internal conflict between self and other, with no resolution offered, as a way of life, a "habit of being" as be puts it. He has consistently used doubled figures in his work since his first group show in 1978. However his earlier works are often seen as having more of a political content, and he has spoken of how the context of military rule in 1980s Pakistan could hardly be avoided as an artist, whereas these later paintings work on a less straightforwardly defined plane - of course, they can be read with reference to gendered and sexualized identities, but that would ignore the element of play, of a particular form of theatre that is present.

Anwar Saeed was born in 1955 in Lahore. He has exhibited widely, most recently in 'Hanging Fire' at the Asia Society, New York but also as the National Art Gallery Islamabad; the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, the curated Pakistan pavilion at Art Dubai, The Harris Art Gallery and Canvas Gallery.

Private View
Wednesday 27th October
6:30 - 9pm

Exhibition Dates
28th October - 20 November 2010

Preview Exhibition
Saad Qureshi
Disappearing in Yesterday
London
Saad Qureshi, 'Via Doloroso' detail, 2009, acrylic, oil, emulsion, pencil, newspaper on canvas, 5 x 3.4'

Saad Qureshi's recent suite of works can been understood a self-contained project made up of individual paintings and drawings - and are presented as such in Aicon Gallery's downstairs gallery. Works reference travel and are set in what seems 'non-spaces'; the type of liminal, in-between spaces that have been theorized by thinkers such as Homi Bhabha and Frederic Jameson. Railway tracks are set in barren landscapes and disappear into the distance fading into indistinctness. The imagery is fragmentary and fleeting - motifs take shape precariously before fading. The background that they fade into is not forgiving - instead Qureshi's use of glossy white paint or raw hide is a contrasting hardness to the softness of the imagery.

Saad Qureshi was born in 1986 and lives and works in London. In 2010 he graduated with his MFA Fine Art from The Slade School of Fine Art. Over the past two years he has shown at Red Mansion Foundation, Saatchi Gallery, Modern Art Oxford and Aicon Gallery.

Private View
Wednesday 27th October
6:30 - 9pm
Exhibition Dates
28th October - 20 November 2010
Preview Exhibition
Aicon Gallery at Abu Dhabi Art Fair
Abu Dhabi, UAE

We are delighted to announce that Aicon Gallery will be participating in Abu Dhabi Art 2010. We will be located at booth B-10 from the 3rd - 7th November, and do hope that you will come and visit us should you intend to visit. Please see the link to view artworks. Artists featured will include:

T.V Santhosh
Ravinder Reddy
Adeela Suleman
Avishek Sen
Sakti Burman
Sadequain
Ayesha Durrani
Debanjan Roy
Sana Arjumand
amongst others...

Booth B-10
3-7th November 2010
Emirates Palace