Asif Hoque

GOLDEN BOY

Artist Reception: November 17th, 6-8 PM

November 18th - December 17th, 2022

To View the Exhibition Click Here

“These pictures are conceptions of light - the essence of fire, not as we see it in the material world but as the radiance of the inner being. They are produced from that state of consciousness from which the creative impulse is a unified expression and solidified to the presentation of the material forms of the natural world.”

-Agnes Pelton December 7th, 1930

Asif Hoque culls from a variety of touchstones for his new exhibition “Golden Boy.” The spirit of the Desert Transcendentalists meets the regalness of, say, a Peter Paul Ruebens all with that magic hour light of burnt sienna and cosmic green. As a first generation American, there is often some exploration of his family’s cultural roots which here manifest in imagery taken from the Gazi Scroll. Asif also found creative connectivity in the pages of Amitav Ghosh’s 2004 novel, “The Hungry Tide.” Imagine Saint George and the Dragon only depicted as a Bengali pir (or warrior saint). “In a very literal sense my relationship to gold is embedded in this series,” explains the artist. “As a baby, my parents gifted me a golden pendant almost like a small Den Mohor or symbol of security. Except in Islam to wear such luxury as a grown man can seen as a type of ostentation. When and how does that signifier get flipped?” May gold be worn then as a type of armor to escape the perils of vanity? We bear witness to Asif’s myth-making in real time often set against the backdrop of a raging sea as if the ocean were vast enough to swallow every fact and fable.

Asif Hoque’s (b. Rome, 1991) work has been exhibited at Half Gallery, Los Angeles; Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK; Almine Rech Gallery, Brussels, Belgium; Yossi Milo, New York and Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, FL among others. Hoque studied fine art at Pratt Institute and Hunter College. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.