Sanié Bokhari and Asif Hoque “It’s more about us”

Sanié Bokhari and Asif Hoque “It’s more about us”

Selenas Mountain

This event has ended.

Selenas Mountain is excited to present It’s more about us, a two-person exhibition by New York based artists Sanié Bokhari and Asif Hoque. Pakistani-born Bokhari and Bangladeshi immigrant Hoque both explore unique narratives in their own artistic perspectives as they re-contextualize various art historical traditions. Through painting, drawing, and sculpture these artists reflect on the experience of living in between two cultures.

Exploring Pakistani folklore, Sanié Bokhari’s practice reimagines the female figure as a protagonist and idol. In some works female figures gracefully swim and dance. In others they triumphantly carry swords and severed heads. Water becomes a channel of both leisure and danger as the artist embraces opposed forces of beauty and fright. This bizarre mix of rituals could never exist in reality and develops into Bokhari’s unique ceremonial language. Through her drawings and sculptures, Bokhari references elements of miniature painting. Playing with scale and perspective, she incorporates 3D printed figures pushing the evolution of the tradition of miniature painting into a contemporary means of production.

Asif Hoque’s paintings portray muscular figures moving in ethereal, atmospheric settings. These heavenly scenes are filled with nude bodies jovially gracing the canvas, embracing each other in intimate entanglements. Drawing from his Bangladeshi ancestry, Hoque is interested in Eastern representations of the human figure. Working with conventions of idealized corporeal forms from Ancient Greek art, Hoque infuses his own personal identity while he conjures a contemporary utopia of contented lovers and romantic interactions.

Sanié Shoaib Bokhari was born in Lahore, Pakistan. After completing her Bachelors in Painting from the National College of Arts, in 2014, she taught there for two years. She continued her studio practice alongside, and has exhibited her work in galleries in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore.

In 2012, she was one of the three individuals selected to represent Pakistan in Luton, for a cultural exchange program where Pakistani truck art was the main focus. She also spent a month at the Vermont Studio Centre, after which she recognized the necessity of graduate school for her work practice. In 2016, Bokhari started a two-year MFA program at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her current practice is an undertaking of an inquiry of the broad range of prospects presented by contemporary painting.

Asif Tanvir Hoque is a 27 year old Pratt Institute graduate, living and working in Brooklyn, New York. As a Bangladeshi immigrant, who was raised in South Florida, Hoque’s paintings attempts to figuratively and stylistically combine aspects of multicultural identity. His early work highlights his fascination with classical fine arts, but with the progression of his skill and his self-discovery, Hoque challenges his audience to explore aspects of self that are authentic. Hoque hopes to address the unique experience of living in the “in between”.

Media

• Painting
• Sculpture

ADVERTISE ON NYAB