Imran Qureshi in his Berlin studio. Photo: Ronald Dick
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Imran Qureshi, Bleed, 2013. Photo: Daisy Loewl. © Imran Qureshi, Courtesy Corvi-Mora, London
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Imran Qureshi, Give & Take, 2013. Photo: Daisy Loewl. © Imran Qureshi, Courtesy Corvi-Mora, London
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Imran Qureshi, Opening Word of This New Scripture, 2013. © Imran Qureshi, Courtesy Corvi-Mora, London
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Imran Qureshi creating his site-specific work for The Roof Garden Commission project
on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. Photograph: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Hyla Skopitz
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Installation view of The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi (2013), detail. Photograph: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Hyla Skopitz
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Installation view of The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi (2013), detail. Photograph: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Hyla Skopitz
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Works by Imran Qureshi can currently be seen at the Venice Biennale and the New York Metropolitan Museum. After its premiere in the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, the first major European Qureshi show will make an appearance in the Museo d’arte contemporanea Roma
beginning on September 24. With its pioneering architecture and
ambitious program, the MACRO provides an ideal platform for the
exhibition of the Pakistan-based “Artist of the Year” 2013. In 2012 the MACRO showed Riffs, the exhibition of works by Yto Barrada, who was selected as Deutsche Bank “Artist of the Year” 2011.
Schooled
in traditional miniature painting, Imran Qureshi developed completely
new forms of expression from this old art form. His works, which have
the format of a school notebook, but can also encompass entire building
complexes, have continually addressed the social and political reality
in Pakistan. At the same time, they are also dedicated to profound
existential themes that speak to everyone. The exhibition of the 2013
“Artist of the Year” brings together numerous miniature paintings,
large canvases made especially for the show, and an installation.
Qureshi’s works move between tradition and modernism and have terror
and death, spirituality and beauty as their themes. One of the
recurrent motifs are ornamental blood-red flowers. “Shoots of Hope” is
what Qureshi calls them—as a symbol for change and the emergence of new
life.
Since May, Qureshi’s painting installation And How Many Rains Must Fall Before the Stains Are Washed Clean
is on view on the Roof Garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York. On the spacious terrace, where during the summer sculptural works
by artists like Tomás Saraceno or Doug and Mike Starn
are otherwise shown, he covered the flagstones with his
blood-stain-like, red petal ornaments. Now, the museum is additionally
presenting a selection of Qureshi’s more intimate formats: his
miniature paintings can be seen in a small exhibition beginning on July
29. The works employ the centuries-old technique of the Mughal era
as a contemporary form of expression. The Metropolitan, with its
collection that spans five millennia, provides the ideal context for
them.
Imran Qureshi
2013 Deutsche Bank "Artist of the Year"
9/24 – 11/17/2013
MACRO, Rome
The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi
through November 3, 2013
Imran Qureshi's Miniature Paintings
7/29/2013 – 2/2/2014
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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