Taymour Grahne Projects is pleased to announce its participation in Art Dubai 2023, where the gallery will present a solo booth by NY-based artist Asif Hoque.

Asif Hoque’s latest body of work is directly inspired by the landscape of the United Arab Emirates. Spread across 6 large scale paintings, the artist examines a longing for a place yet to be visited.

The backdrop of each of the paintings are golden yellow planes that set the stage for equally magnificent red curls to dance, swirl, and smoulder. The exploration of yellow can be clearly traced from the heat of the sun to the sand of the land, while the curls encompass various other reference points and visual forms. Exploring shapes related to the curl of his own hair, Hoque’s expressive swirls and spirals are intertwined with the artist’s greater understanding of his own identity.

In the works, we see the curl isolated from the crown of the head, translated, and then expanded on the canvas. Swirling clouds of flushed red curlicues make up blazing compositions. Tangerine waves, swell and balloon up until bursting point.

The otherworldly landscapes that Hoque create offer an opportunity for transcendence and reassurance. Within these scenes, light plays an important role. Of particular focus are the glimmer of rays that shine down between the clouds. The luminosity and experience of light triggers a potent moment of escape from the mundane. It can heighten emotions – where feeling overcomes thought, or reflections can be felt more profoundly. Hoque draws on these rare moments and builds a world around them, reminding us of the possibilities that can be accessed when we let our minds imagine and lean into inner experience.

In the works, the animal heads incorporate an array of cultural associations – the lion embodying a western perspective and the tiger referencing the east. This draws together the artist’s own upbringing and exploration of different cultures. Furthermore, by painting the lion and tiger heads together in partnership on the canvas, it’s suggested they make up two parts of a whole - bringing a sense of equilibrium to this fantastical world.

Asif Hoque completed a studio residency in London with Taymour Grahne Projects as part of his solo show with the gallery entitled The American Loverboy (2021). The works were devised and painted in the UK, and accompanied by a commissioned text by writer and curator Dr Cleo Roberts Komireddi. Other exhibitions with the gallery include Intimacy, A Group Show (2022) featuring 28 artists with a text by writer and curator Osman Can Yerebakan and Contemporary Domesticity, A Group Show (2021).

Recent exhibitions include: Golden Boy, [solo] Gallery, NY (2022), NOVA [two person] Half Gallery LA (2022), Primal Wing [solo booth] presented by Mindy Solomon Gallery at EXPO Chicago, IL (2022), Before Sunrise [solo], Yossi Milo Gallery, NY (2022), Terracotta [solo], Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, FL (2021), Resting Point of Accommodation [group show], curated by Bill Powers, Half Gallery), Almine Rech, Brussels, BE (2021). Asif Hoque lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received his Associate Degree from the Pratt Institute (2014). Selected press includes Artsy (2022), Whitewall (2021), Xibt Magazine, (2021), Juxtapoz Magazine, 2021, Artsy, (2020) and Juxtapoz Magazine, (2020).