Muhammad Zeeshan|Posternama

Elisabetta Marabotto of Saffronart shares a note on Muhammad Zeeshan’s current exhibition at Latitude 28

Muhammad Zeeshan, Vidya, 2013

Muhammad Zeeshan, Vidya, 2013. Image Credit: http://www.latitude28.com/index.php/works/newarrival/945

London: Latitude 28 in New Delhi is currently hosting Muhammad Zeeshan solo exhibition: Posternama.

The exhibition includes Zeeshan’s recent body of work which is inspired by miniatures’ imageries such as myths, stories of saints and martyrs and scholars which have been reinterpreted by the artist’s austere sensibilities and transformed into contemporary miniatures.

Muhammad Zeeshan, Buraq I, 2013

Muhammad Zeeshan, Buraq I, 2013. Image Credit: http://www.latitude28.com/index.php/works/newarrival/934

 

Zeeshan said about his work: “I am using poster images found locally within our culture. These imageries consist of mythical creatures and human. Within the Sufi culture lies a lot of fantastical stories. Using these stories, random local artists and believers have given their own faces to the Sufis and creatures, illustrating the time, events and landscape. I am using those posters to research and explore my own technique.”

Muhammad Zeeshan, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, 2013

Muhammad Zeeshan, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, 2013. Image Credit: http://www.latitude28.com/index.php/works/newarrival/939

 

The artist started his career as billboard painter and then studied miniature art at National College in Lahore. For this exhibition he experimented laser scoring which made his work meditative, almost spiritual.

Muhammad Zeeshan, Buraq II, 2013

Muhammad Zeeshan, Buraq II, 2013. Image Credit: http://www.latitude28.com/index.php/works/newarrival/935

The exhibition is on until January 5. For more information click here.

Yoga: The Art of Transformation

Elisabetta Marabotto of Saffronart shares a note on the forthcoming exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington

London: The Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery will be hosting from October 19th, the first exhibition entirely dedicated to the art of yoga, perhaps one of the most popular practices at the moment.

Yoga: The Art of Transformation. Image Credit: http://asia.si.edu/yoga/save-the-date.asp

Yoga: The Art of Transformation. Image Credit: http://asia.si.edu/yoga/save-the-date.asp

The exhibition visually traces the history of yoga from its beginning to its modern practice. More than 120 artworks including sculptures, paintings, photographs and films shed light on the obscure history and tenets of yoga and its masters. The show attests the diffusion of yoga between the Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sufi faiths and their shared goal of transforming the body and mind through the yogic practice.

The works on display which date from the 3rd to the early 20th century are categorized in four sections explicating the different stages of the history of yoga: Tantra, The Path of Yoga, Yoga in the Indian Imagination 1570-1830 and Modern Transformations.

Among the highlights are 10 folios from the first illustrated anthology of asanas (yogic poses), the movie “Hindoo Fakir” directed by Thomas Edison in 1906 and 3 statues of Yogini from a 10th century Chola temple.  The works showing in the exhibit were borrowed from 25 museums and private collections based in India, Europe and the United States.

You can enjoy below a sneak peek of some of the exhibition’s highlights:

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Make a note on your diary that the exhibition will be on from the 19th of October 2013 until 26th of January 2014. I am looking forward to it!

To learn more about Yoga: The Art of Transformation, visit the Smithsonian website and read here.