Nirgun Maala - Solo exhibition, Koel Gallery, Karachi

I am pleased to announce the opening of Nirgun Maala, my first solo exhibition in Pakistan. Presented by Koel Gallery in Karachi, the project includes paintings and drawings on paper as well as some of my large scale textile collages.

The work assembled in this exhibition springs from my engagement with the South Asian devotional imagination. Comprised of four distinct series, it obliquely reflects the contemplative concept of simran: perpetual concentration on the Real. This constellation of works also meditates on an integral metaphysical thread that connects Indic religious traditions: the mystery of an absolute nirgun reality that transcends form while, simultaneously, manifesting itself through form. This tension between the essence, naam, and outward appearance, rup, is often represented in devotional poetry through the symbol of the maala, the string of rosary beads common to Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim devotional practices. The maala is also an apt metaphor for the contemplative character of my work: like the turning of the beads, my cyclical practice periodically loops back on itself, revisiting forms and images that have become objects of concentration.

In a popular poem well known by qawwals and bhajan singers alike, Kabir Das ecstatically proclaims his gratitude that his maala is finally broken. This evocative image was the point of departure for Constellations, a series of paintings in which a single string of prayer beads is depicted in the process of breaking open, shedding its limitative form. Characters, a parallel group of tasbihs drawn in black indigo, playfully imitate calligraphic forms or ink blots, suggesting dynamic states of soul. Travelers, a pair of elaborate, embroidery-like collages composed on the surface of handloom silk, complement the intimate works on paper. Referring to the patched and embellished khirqa robes worn by wandering mystics, the abstracted floral imagery of these works echoes the Sanskritic origin of the word maala, which also signifies a garland of flowers. A fourth project, a series of delicate pencil drawings depicting Looms, meditates on the acts of weaving and unraveling. These images pay homage to Kabir’s loom and the invisible grid that governs the coalescence and dissolution of all forms.

Islamic Art Revival Series - 6th Annual International Exhibition of Contemporary Islamic Art

Guest curated by Dr. Linda Komaroff, LACMA; organised by the Islamic Art Revival Series

October 7 - November 12, 2017 | Irving Arts Center

Bringing together an international array of artworks selected by Dr. Linda Komaroff, Senior Curator of Islamic Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this exhibition presents contemporary practices inspired by Islamic art, design, literature, architecture and philosophy. I was very happy to contribute two of my large scale textile collages, including "Garden of Fidelity" (pictured) and a selection from my ongoing Constellations series.

The Language of Objects exhibition catalogue

As the "The Language of Objects" enters its final week on view at the UB Anderson Gallery in Buffalo, here's an excerpt from the exhibition catalogue organized by the wonderful curatorial staff. Many thanks to the UB Art Galleries team and contributing essayist Justine Ludwig! 

The Language of Objects - UB Anderson Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Curated by Rachel Adams

APRIL 22 – JULY 30, 2017 -- Organized by the UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO ART GALLERIES

The Language of Objects is a three-person exhibition featuring artists Matthew Craven, Brendan Fernandes, and Alyssa Pheobus Mumtaz. On view at the UB Anderson Gallery from April 22 through July 30, 2017, this exhibition showcases artists who appropriate cultural objects in their practice. Referencing the Cravens World Collection—a collection of archaeological and ethnographic objects from around the world dating as far back as 4,500 BC on view in the Cravens open storage room—each of the three artists work across geographic borders and in a variety of mediums. The artists create pathways that add to the history of the objects they select. Each artist is working with a collection of objects, and enlist them in the gallery space to construct new narratives. Philosopher Theodor Adorno argued that museums and mausoleums were within the same realm and that objects, once inside a museum, are removed from the flow of culture where new connections can be established. The artists in this exhibition dissuade this theory by continuing to spotlight new narratives through the varied connections with cultural objects and diverse artistic processes.

Kittredge Grant and Recent Travels

In May 2016 I left my home in Charlottesville, Virginia to embark on a year of travel and research. With the help of a generous grant from the Kittredge Fund I returned to Varanasi, where I continued exploring local hand weaving practice and the multidimensional landscape of devotional culture in this incomparable sacred center.

Playing on the metaphorical link between text and textiles, my new work responds to the literary tradition of Kabir, an illiterate Varanasi weaver who became one of the great poet-mystics of medieval India. A scathing critic of religious and social hypocrisy, Kabir explained metaphysical experience through ingeniously elliptical metaphors drawn from his everyday life as a weaver. For Kabir, the acts of weaving, spinning thread and dying cloth went hand in hand with perpetual invocation. Cloth itself was one of Kabir’s favorite symbols for the ephemerality of the human state. The work I have been developing quietly and itinerantly for the past year is dedicated to his legacy.

Being on the road has also given me the opportunity to spend time in other places I love -- London, rural Ireland, Lahore. For the next two months I will be stationed in London, where I will continue preparing work for The Language of Objects, an exhibition that will be presented at the University of Buffalo Art Galleries this spring.