Where The Shadows Are So Deep

From his solo exhibition Where The Shadows Are So Deep, Imran Qureshi currently at The Curve of the Barbican, London:

The Garden Of Ideas

From the inaugural exhibition The Garden Of Ideas: Contemporary Art From Pakistan now at the newly opened Aga Khan Museum, Toronto ...

Bani Abidi:

Abidi for the 8th Berlin Biennale at Museen Dahlem, Berlin 2014:

Nurjahan Akhlaq:

David Chalmers Alesworth:

Alesworth for the 8th Berlin Biennale at Museen Dahlem, Berlin 2014:

Aisha Khalid:

Atif Khan:

Imran Qureshi:

A Garden within a Garden

I was immediately drawn to his distinctive style when I first saw Imran Qureshi's works in Berlin last year.  I was disappointed to find that I just missed his roof garden commission at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by a few days when I visited New York last fall.  I couldn't believe that he has come to Toronto.  His commissioned work for the garden of Aga Khan Museum brought me to this newly opened museum of Islamic arts this past weekend.  I'll write about the museum and its exhibitions later.  This post is exclusively about Qureshi and his outdoor painting The Garden Within.

Details of one of Qureshi's miniature paintings currently on view inside the museum:

Underground 150

Since all art venues were closed on Boxing Day, I took a rare opportunity to roam some busy streets of central London.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the world's oldest underground train, Transport for London's Art on the Underground invited 15 artists to participate in the 15 For 150 project.  The limited edition prints I saw at Piccadilly Circus station yesterday include ...

Wolfgang Tillmans:

Idris Khan:

Runa Islam:

TfL's ongoing Tube Map projects have also continued to draw big names this year to design their map covers.  Earlier this year, there was Mona Hatoum (the May 2013 edition):

The most recent is Imran Qureshi's December 2013 edition:

Some more pictures I took yesterday are available at my newly created Twitter site.

Blessings* in perylene maroon

Imran Qureshi's contemporary miniature paintings at Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, Berlin 2013:

Qureshi's drawings at the KunstHalle, 2013:

Detail of Qureshi's site-specific work at the KunstHalle, 2013:

* Blessings Upon The Land Of My Love is the title of one of Qureshi's miniature paintings on view.

Qureshi: violence, beauty and hope

One of the greatest shows I've seen in Berlin this time is Deutsche Bank KunstHalle's (formerly known as Deutsche Guggenheim) Artist Of The Year 2013 show featuring their winner this year, Pakistani-based Imran Qureshi.  Trained as a miniature painter in his home country, Qureshi works in both grand and miniature scales.  I'll show his more intimate miniature paintings later but here are his larger-scale paintings and installation: