Hanmi   Gallery is pleased to announce the 28^th Interim exhibition Rough around the Edges, showcasing the work of seven artists with varied subject matter.

 

Taking inspiration from the current state of Hanmi gallery, the derelict interior architecture has a rustic and mortal feel that brings into focus the unique human quality of handmade as opposed to the slick machine or computer generated work of today. Advocating great significance to skill, the work in this exhibition is as much about the process of making as it is about the content. Materiality takes centre stage as the physical effort that has gone into the making comes to the fore as a subject just as important as the concept that drives the artist’s practice.

 

Quite often, to conceive an idea is sufficient and making a physical, tangible piece is secondary; materiality and skill are allotted a back seat. This show aims to address the craft versus concept hierarchy as the pieces included exhibit critical thinking via the action and labour that has contributed to the materialization of the work. As an ode to the artists of yesteryears, the artists in this group show recognise the importance of manual labour, skill and making in art. Extrapolating from the technical expertise of the artists of bygone times, this group show will emphasise the careful deliberation on construction and materiality as a means of acknowledging craft as a mandatory element of contemporary art.

 

My aim, for this exhibition, has been to look for artists who have spent significant time in arriving at the final material used to resolve their work while engaging with the process of making. Each artist in this group has painstakingly put together their piece(s), be it through hammering, connecting points, layering paint, building with gauze or projecting their physical being onto their creation.

 

Alia Bilgrami’s artworks contain fragments from a personal sense of dislocation, endeavouring to portray the dichotomy that exists when you have both a sense belonging and of being scattered all at once. Through labour intensive media such as drawings, analogue photography, contemporary miniature painting and solar plate etchings, her work evokes a feeling of displacement. Using the tulip as a metaphor, her practice has taken on a slight political twist.  These newer works comment on the fall of Capitalism globally and the pieces coming apart, locally. Bilgrami has an MA FA from Central Saint Martins in London. She is curator at Khaas Art Gallery in Islamabad, Pakistan, where she lives and practices.

Using variable surfaces and materials such as the mirror, plaster and colour pigments, Andrea M. Georgiou explores the relationship between 2D and 3D making. Balancing between painting and sculpture, his work presents an attempt to capture the energy of the human body.

Having completed an MA FA in London, Georgiou lives and works in Limassol, Cyprus.

Asmaa Hashmi’s work is evocative of a time and space that we have all journeyed through, a place where emotions reign over logic and rationality. Her work emanates unrestrained emotions and an unvoiced plea that overtakes the canvas and evolves and unfolds in front of us. Layering of colours, line quality, weaving, and patchwork are essential elements of the artist’s long-standing art practice. Hashmi has an MFA from Hawaii. She currently lives and practices in Oxford, UK.

 

Julian Dams the surface illusion of the photograph is a place of spatial enquiry. Through his practice, Dams asks the questions, ‘How do we experience the physical aspect of photography? Or is the nature of photography a hidden action; either mechanical or digital, in which the operator or viewer is at odds with the visual evidence gathered or consumed? In attempting to recreate the physical space within a printed surface, Dams work is extensively laborious and skilled. Dams has an MA FA lives and practices in London, with his wife and children.

 

Mona Choo’s current work involves making objects largely from clear material. Her aim is to create sculptures that have a quality of weightlessness and transparency, in an attempt to capture a sense of the space where dimensions change from one to the other. Choo’s work is process driven – how the materials are used and put together to communicate ideas of interconnectivity, the question of consciousness and higher dimensions. Choo lives and practices in London where she recently completed an MA Art and Science.

 

Working with a wide range of media, Myrianthe Sozou’s body of work is focused on a sculptural and spatial approach to art. In her site-specific installations, she maintains the honesty and aesthetics of simple industrial mass materials and explores their ‘micro-macro’ elements, as well as their reflective, distortive and ultimately alienating qualities. As metaphors for the workings of the visual system, the works play with one’s vision and human perception whilst adhering to a somewhat minimal formal stringency. Myrianthe recently completed an MA Art and Science in London. She lives and practices in Limassol, Cyprus.

 

Samar F Zia is fascinated with the idea of using biotechnology to affect the natural order of things. Through her practice, Zia aims to realize the pseudo natural products humans are capable of constructing through technology and their implications for humanity while attempting to establish the sanctity of nature.  Owing to her desire to experiment with material and media she has explored unusual materials such as muslin, gauze and gel medium, while also crafting sound and video installations. Utitlizing scientific development and curious materials her aim is to make art that is challenging for her while remaining intellectually stimulating for her audience. Zia holds an MA FA from London, where she lives and practices.