A Poet’s Quarrel, by Denver based Indo-Caribbean artist Suchitra Mattai, is an artwork made out of another artwork. Like many of Mattai’s recent pieces it is a textile intervention on a found artwork – embroidery on a landscape painting. Using bright yellow and red thread Mattai has embroidered large lightning bolts onto an otherwise idyllic … Read More
A wall of soft words. Bangla script as sculpture, with pillow-like volume and skin of shimmering sari fabric. The formal beauty of written Bangla catches the eye of the uninitiated. The title, The Spell Song, heightens the mystery of the text. For Bangla speakers the softness will transcend the physical to the linguistic. The phrases … Read More
Hangama Amiri is memorializing the everyday lives of contemporary Afghan urbanites. Combining a fashion designer’s toolkit with the history and language of painting, Amiri is creating rich images that place Afghan women at the center. We see a colorful bazaar, banners for Khatool Mohammadzai, the first and most senior female general in the Afghan National … Read More
Green is a loaded color for some of us. Green is Islam. Green is Pakistan. It is the dominant color on the Pakistani flag and consequently inextricably linked to national identity – saturating government seals, corporate logos, athletic uniforms, and more. It appears prominently in Pakistani-American artist Umber Majeed’s work. Majeed’s choice of green, however, … Read More
Mequitta Ahuja’s 2019 painting Xpect depicts a woman in a red dress reclining on two chairs that have been draped with bright blue fabric. The large painting directly behind her, the smaller painting on the floor in the background, and the lack of furniture around the woman imply that we are in an art gallery. … Read More
One Piece By… is an interview-column by Kajal arts contributor Sarah Burney. In each piece, Burney will have an in-depth discussion with a South Asian artist about one work of art they have created. Pakistani-Canadian artist Zinnia Naqvi mines her family album for inspiration and source material. In her photograph The Wanderers – Niagara’s Falls,1988, … Read More
One Piece By… is an interview-column by Kajal arts contributor Sarah Burney. In each piece Burney will have an in-depth discussion with a South Asian artist about one work of art they have created. The world, as we knew it, is on pause. As governments scramble to get ahead of the coronavirus pandemic and the … Read More
Niyya, a newly launched Muslim lifestyle brand, has given that most fundamental of Islamic objects, the prayer mat, a long overdue makeover. In lieu of plush velvetesque fabrics, jewel tones, and ornate patterns, Niyya.co utilizes thick cotton, a pop art color palette, and an abstract aesthetic informed equally by modern art and Muslim iconography. Pushing … Read More
Contemporary artist Padma Rajendran’s debut solo exhibition, Among Nines, just closed at Ortega y Gasset Projects in Brooklyn, New York. Born in Malaysia, raised in the Middle East and America, and now based in New York, Rajendran explores the labor of women, interiors, the meaning of space, and narratives of home in her work. Art advisor Sarah Burney … Read More
