Upcoming solo exhibition by Backwater Artists Network member Samir Mahmood
We’re beyond delighted to shout about Samir Mahmood’s first solo exhibition at the MART Gallery in Rathmines, Dublin, opening Saturday 11 March to Friday 24 March.
Samir is working with curator Rachel Botha towards this very timely showcase, “I feel very privileged to be working with Samir on his first solo exhibition. We are having regular meetings and conversations about the philosophy surrounding ‘non-duality’, queerness and exhibition-making – it’s been a collaborative exchange. I am very excited to present this exhibition, where the poetic can be a powerful act of protest.”
The ideas for Samir’s art practice come from research on experiences of migration, citizenship, identity and spirituality. The work focuses on themes of the body, transformation, transcendence and cultures surrounding queer existence. Samir’s practice borders between the planned and spontaneous. The work produced through this engagement comprises digital photo-collages, painting, objects, video and recently mixed reality.
Samir’s Indo-Persion miniature style paintings queer the grammar of patriarchal homophobic society and depict a distorted sense of reality experienced by queer migrants. These works constitute an act of disobedience, by inserting a naked male body in the sacred genre of manuscript art.
Samir is a studio member at MART Studios, Galway.
