Conflations of Quality and Quantity
View: Conflations of Quality and Quantity
Source: Dawn
View: Beyond Representational forms
Source: Business Recorder
Amin, a renowned visual and performance artist has exhibited extensively, globally and locally. His works are part of prestigious public and private collections .
The show continues daily until December 31st 2015 from 11 am – 8 pm
Source: artnowpakistan.com
KARACHI: An exhibition with the theme of “Washed Upon the Shore” featuring new works of eminent artiste Amin Gulgee kicked off at Canvas Gallery on 28th, December, 2015. The event is showcasing his new sculptures, installations and performances.
Zarmeene Shah, the curator of this exhibition, while speaking exclusively with this writer said, “Amin has created a world, which has three moons, instead of having one, revolving around the world. To understand this world, one needs a different approach of thinking, which is growing need of today’s world in order to find the solution to the problems we all are facing”.
Amin Gulgee is a renowned visual and performance artiste who has exhibited his work extensively, both globally and locally. His works are part of prestigious public and private collections.
He received a BA in Art, History and Economics from Yale University in 1987 and won the Conger B. Goodyear Fine Arts Award for his senior thesis on Moghul gardens.
Amin’s international group-shows include “Open: Esposizione Internazionale di Sculpture ed Installazioni” in Venice, Italy in 1998; “Pakistan: Another Vision,” Brunei Gallery, London, UK in 2000; the Beijing Biennial in 2003; “Beyond Borders,” National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India in 2005; “Paradise Lost,” WAH Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA in 2008; “Rites of Passage,” Ostrale, Dresden, Germany in 2010. And his installation, Char Bagh I, was shown at Art Taipei in 2012.
Gulgee has had more than 30 solo exhibitions in Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai, India, the UK, Portugal and the US. His most recent solo was “Walking on the Moon” at Wei-Ling Contemporary in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2015.
He is also known for his performance works, an emerging field in Pakistan. Over the past decade, he had staged over a dozen performance works in Karachi and Lahore, Dubai and Nagoya, as well at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Gulgee was given Pakistan’s highest civilian honour, the President’s Pride of Performance in 2005 and was named as one of the Power Pakistan 100 in 2012, among other awards. He lives and works in Karachi.
The show will continue daily till December 31st 2015.
By
Farhan Khan -Dec 30, 2015
Source: liverostrum.com
KARACHI: Amin Gulgee is a seasoned artist. He has been making sculptures and creating installations for more than two decades and is a socially mobile person. His work is known to all those in Pakistan who have even a modicum of interest in art. Has that taken the element of surprise out of his work? The answer is, no. Here’s why: an exhibition of Amin’s artworks captioned Washed upon the shore began at the Canvas Art Gallery on Monday evening. While at the heart of the show are the sculptures and installations that the artist has recently come up with, the opening day was marked by performances that were developed around his pieces made of copper, bronze, glass and silver leaf. Not that the artworks needed that, but the fact that the performances were in harmony (by virtue of their ceremonial posturing) with his creative output, lent an added dimension to the whole process.
It has to be said, though, that Amin’s art vocabulary has expanded horizontally. This means that he is not aiming for a higher goal; rather he is exploring the world, both physical and spiritual, which exists around him. ‘The Empty Egg’ series (copper) is an evidence of it. The emptiness is significant because it is indicative of lifelessness that artists are always taken in by. He is not investigating birth; he is looking for it. This can be inferred from the fact that using metal to talk about something that’s fragile and readily breakable is creating a contrast which is in-your-face. So it seems.
Then there are the unmissable moons in the exhibition. Again, they are not as much a cosmic entity as they are an object through which the artist tries to examine existence. What happens, in return, as with Amber Moon (copper and glass), that the artworks develop eyes of their own and start to examine the artist himself. The result is not easy to describe.
The artists who participated in the performance on the inaugural day of the show were Joshinder, Sunil, Ali, Ammad, Zeerak and Iram. The exhibition, curated by Zarmeene Shah, will remain open until Dec 31.
Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2015
Source: dawn.com
View: Washed upon the Shore …and more
Source: Dawn – Metropolitan
Karachi
“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the light on broken glasses” – Anton Chekhov
Suspended from the ceiling defying their immense weight, two moons face each other, shining glamorously as the light catches the coloured glass and copper of which they are fashioned, however the beauty of the work lies on its conclave side, which is arguably as beautiful in its intricacy and impact as the front.
But maestro sculptor Amin Gulgee is not done yet. There is a third moon, a darker one that represents a sinister side, not within the dialogue of the other two but acting almost as witness to them.
The new series of works, presented in the exhibition, “Washed upon the Shore”, was unique in its nature, where the artist showed his brilliance by producing pieces manifesting a mysterious sentient presence, which could be at best felt than explained.
It is said that the beauty lies in the eye of beholder and the art viewers have the right to hold subjective interpretations which can be contrary to the artist’s perception.
As Gulgee extravagantly put it, “The viewers can have their own interpretations of my art. I have nothing to say on it and leave it open to them.”
It was not only his art, but the art performances at the exhibition too were just as captivating.
In one corner, a shirtless man was being painted by a young man. In a room, a woman was slowly rolling and shifting through a pile of coal. Outside the gallery, a man was combing out lice from a woman’s hair. What is the connecting thought behind these portrayals?
Is it a showcase of our society – the excruciating pain of a woman in her surroundings that are reflected through the heap of coal, the surreal romance involving lice and the colours depicting the imposition of one’s views and beliefs on the gullible other.
The interpretations may vary from person to person, but surely it was a deliberate effort from Gulgee to instigate thought for seeking a connection between the diverse representations of ideas, beautifully executed by the actors.
Huma Tassawur, a viewer, noted it was an innovative expression of ideas that expanded the scope of theatre.
For Shireen, an art student, it was the use of copper and glass on the art pieces that had left her amazed. “The innovative technique of presenting the thought is a completely new experience,” she added.
Art enthusiasts can experience Guljee’s mastery till Dec 21 at the Canvas Gallery.
Source: thenews.com.pk
ONE is based in Karachi, Pakistan. Amin Gulgee’s latest exhibition, Walking On The Moon,recently concluded at Wei-Ling Contemporary, The Gardens Mall. It is a series of breathtaking “love letters” to the World.
The other, Oliviero Rainaldi, is an Italian marvel whose human figures cast in bronze, plaster and glass just make you want to weep in reverence. TWINS: Works by Oliviero Rainaldi is currently being showcased at the Twin Towers. He pens: “I was born a twin, like my mother and grandmother. I dedicate this exhibit to my ancestors and to the Twin Towers of Kuala Lumpur, which attracted me at first glance.”
Some of Amin’s works can be seen at Mandarin Oriental’s pop-up restaurant, Aziamendi 88, until October 30. His cast aluminium Sun Dried Heads 1 — The Wreath in particular, is hypnotic. It is a work you can circle a hundred times and still discover new things each time. And repeating what was immediately observed when faced with his bronze constructions: it’s true what they say, that beauty depends very much on what we agree it to be.
Amin’s works combine a deep artistic skill and astuteness, elegant pieces which carry within them the artist’s wonderfully warped mind, his love poems to the world.
Amin’s larger-than-life predominantly burnished bronze designs are brutally beautiful. The engravings on each one, of calligraphic verses, lend the works supreme elegance. Me in the Matrix, as the artist almost gleefully divulges, “hacked 89 times: nose, chin, eyes, the whole face” makes you curious what kind of incubuses he has. The work is utterly brilliant and completely crazy. His Chapati series are whimsical and serious, tortuously folded copper which appear heavy and paper-like.
Amin reminds us that visual content is a thing without limits, that while they may very well be both personal and mythopoeic, the works are also hugely accessible. When was the last time you heard an artist say of his works, “Please don’t be afraid to touch the sculptures and get a feel of what they’re about”? The artist himself is baroque-like and in five minutes, makes you feel like long-lost best friends. Very much like his sculptures, Amin draws you in with unbridled enthusiasm for the things he has done and is going to do.
His art gallery in Karachi is constantly evolving, curating impelling shows for both local and international artists. For someone so extraordinarily accomplished, he possesses no airs. He, is, after all, the son of Ismail Gulgee, one of Pakistan’s most gifted painters. Walking on the Moon itself is a beatific title, revealing Amin’s own feelings of wonder. His works has this sense of permanence in an adamantine way that’s so acutely beguiling, it becomes that rabbit hole you just couldn’t keep away from.
Oliviero Rainaldi’s opening of TWINS, meanwhile, was opulent, attended by the who’s who of Malaysia’s society elite. Be that as it may, none came even close to rival his works. Beautifully spaced to give each sculpture and painting pivotal breathing space so as not to overwhelm too much, Rainaldi’s creations goad, calling out to you in urgent whispers.
As expressed by curator Badrolhisham Mohamad Tahir: “In all, his drawings, paintings and sculptures, Oliviero Rainaldi concentrates on the human figure, its body language and gestures. He explores fundamental questions of human existence and their connections to religion and philosophy. Rainaldi’s choice of materials reflects the entire range of his expression. Rainaldi loves the miracle of light. Faces are made only readable by the play of light over the absolutely white ground. This is the best example of his minimalist emphasis on its material presence by the use of light”.
2001 Le Dejeuner Sur Le Blune is of a figure prostrating, its head touching the ground. In 2013 Caduti, the magnificent bronze carving sits quietly on a plinth. Adjacent, 2007 polyptych charcoal on wood Conversazioni are of lovers in deep communion. Battesami Umani, the artist’s 2014 bronze sculpture of a figure standing on its head simply stuns. The whole show is a dance, perfectly choreographed, flawless in execution. And this jumped into mind instantaneously: Mavin Khoo’s wondrous ZfinMalta Dance Ensemble’s debut in Kuala Lumpur at the Temple of Fine Arts recently.
Je Tiens la Reine, a contemporary adaptation of Mallarme’s 1876 L’Apres-midi-d’un Faune and Debussy’s 1894 Prelude a L’Apres-midi d’un Faune presented by Pusaka is Rainaldi’s sculptures come to life. From the incredibly sophisticated jumps, swirls and tortured writhing of these nymph-spirits to the scalpel sharp formations, the show was mind-pummeling.
Similarly, Rainaldi’s Twins gives us a glimpse into an alternate universe where everything smoulders, a visual witchery of his characters tearing feverishly at each other the moment the lights go off.
In these immortal lines of Bob Dylan’s Visions Of Johanna, from his 1966 album, Blonde on Blonde:
“In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman’s bluff with the key chain
And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the D-train
We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight
Ask himself if it’s him or them that’s really insane
Louise she’s all right she’s just near
She’s delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna’s not here
The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place.”
Walking on the Moon and TWINS are both the same spiritual love song. It’s unavoidable when you pitch beauty against beauty. It is la douleur exquise, the exquisite pain of longing for someone-something so intense it shatters Worlds.
By Sarah NH Vogeler – October 13, 2015 @ 5:31pm
Source: nst.com.my