Amid the common & most popular techniques, approaches we witness today in Art, comes an artist from a land of constant unrest in a tensioned region, an artist with superior techniques & approach to feature daily concerns… Meet Amin Rehman
Amin Rehman is a multidisciplinary artist who has been working since the 1980’s. Rehman, originally from Pakistan & lives in Canada, holds a Diploma in Design, National College of Arts, at the National College of Arts (Lahore), Pakistan. a Diploma in Art Gallery and Museum Studies from the University of Manchester (UK), a Certificate in Digital Art, Toronto, Canada. And an MFA the University of Windsor, Ontario.
Rehman’s interests and issues are primarily drawn from his experience of living in Pakistan and Canada. His work engages and comments on the current effects of neo-colonialism and globalization and also encompasses a number of artist practices such as installation, painting, video and neon.
His latest series “White Wash” Rehman useed encaustic, acrylic, digital, and neon text to provide an artistic reconsideration and a rethinking of his own cultural past and present. By investigating the use of neo-colonial language, using Perso-Arabic scripts and intertwining Islamic Calligraphy with English, he takes a contemporary art practice into the connotation of despotic identity.
He has exhibited extensively in a number of exhibitions and festivals across Canada and abroad, notably the Doris McCarthy Gallery (Toronto), National Art Gallery (Pakistan), Rush Arts Gallery (New York), and University of Technology (Sydney).
Rehman won numerous international awards such as; 2011Exhibition Assistance Grant, Ontario Art Council, Ontario. 2010 Mid Career Artist Grant, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario, Canada. 20062nd Prize, Hart House Juried Show, J M Barmicke Gallery, University of Toronto. 2005 Artist of the year award, SAVAC, Toronto, Canada. 1987-88 The British Council Fellowship.
Amin Rehman Upcoming Solo Exhibitions:
2012 Final Hours, Alhamra Art Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan (December 15-30)
2012 Final Hours, Artcite, Windsor, ON (October 18-Nov 16)
2012 White Wash, McIntosh Art Gallery, University of Western Ontario, London, ON (February 23-April 7)
Al Maha on Amin Rehman Artworks
Amin Rehman is an artist who presents a new era in techniques, though it existed before but he presents it with a different approach, putting him on a different level of art & competition! But it’s not only all about techniques, there’s also a concept, a message behind every project. For example, the Black Hole I & ll is “a critique of media which uses these phrases and words to distract rather than inform global consciousness. The work comprises of a series of triple-hung vinyl texts based upon political slogans, media jargons and tabloid news” using phrases like “Market Values”, “Unstable Governments” and “Exported”. Whereas in Big Stories Little India, Rehman suggests the irony of their usage in the post-colonial immigrant context and explores the nostalgic re-construction of history in this South Asian diaspora community.
We would like to see Amin Rehman exhibiting in the Middle East soon, for sharing similar concerns not in the details of his artworks in the idea as whole. Best of luck!
Cheers
Al Mahha Art Magazine 