About the Exhibition
We
are delighted to present Batin – Saubiya
Chasmawala’s second solo exhibition in Mumbai, and her first at TARQ, following
her 2017 show Pilgrimage of Historical Oversights at Clark House. In
this exhibition, Chasmawala works to further develop her engagement with Arabic
script, pushing the boundaries of abstraction. In her paintings of ink and
natural dyes, Chasmawala layers characters to obscure the rigidity of their
form, moving away further away from her older, representational works.
Bātin
literally means "inner" and in this context, is connected deeply to
the artist’s relationship to her practice. Her newest works are born out of a
desire to demystify, to unveil, and are the results of an intuitive,
introspective, almost meditative mark making process. The artwork is undoubtedly
and almost inextricably tied to Chasmawala’s sense of self, history, and
identity and their creation is a therapeutic, almost cathartic process for her,
and an opportunity to move away from a sense of conflict and duality.
The
exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue featuring an essay by Skye
Arundhati Thomas, which delves into Chasmawala’s unique approach to
abstraction, form and texture.
About the Artist
Saubiya Chasmawala (b.1990)
received her Masters in Visual Arts from Vadodara’s Maharaja Sayajirao
University, Fine Arts, specialising in painting (2015). She interned under the
paper-artist Anupam Chakraborty in hand paper-making at the Nirupama Akademi,
Kolkata.
In September 2017, Saubiya had her
first solo exhibition, Pilgrimage of Historical Oversights, at Clark House
initiative in Mumbai. She has been a part of various group shows including
Words of Her Seeing, Conflictorium, Museum of Conflict, Ahmedabad (2019); In
letter and spirit, TARQ, Mumbai (July 2016); Unwinding, Nazar Art Gallery, Vadodara, India (November
2016); Reading Room, a travelling exhibition curated by Amit Jain, Winchester
School of Art, University of Southampton, United Kingdom (October 2015) and New
York (September – October 2016) and Emerging Palettes, an exhibition of
paintings, Srishti Art Gallery, Hyderabad (August 2015). Her work was also
exhibited at the India Art Fair, represented by TARQ (2018), and CIMA award
show (February 2017).
Recently, Saubiya was part of the
Artist’s Program at The Space Studio, Baroda (February-April, 2019). She has
been an artist-in-residence at the Blueprint12 Studio, Vadodara (July-a TIFA
working studios in February 2017.
She is a recipient of the
prestigious Nasreen Mohamedi Scholarship Award (2011-12) and Inlaks Fine Art
Award (2016). She currently practices her art in Vadodara at her personal
studio.
Preview: Thursday, 17th October 2019 | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm
11:00 am – 6:30 pm | Tuesday – Saturday | Closed on Public Holidays
