A renowned artist and filmmaker, Owais will be showing new work in London for the first time in over 10 years having previously exhibited work at Tate Modern and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Following his participation at START Doha in March, Owais has produced a new series of works on paper specially for the fair.
Owais has previously worked in a variety of mediums, using film, photography, painting, sculpture, installation and poetry – in various combinations or on their own – to create visually textured works that both reference his roots in a traditional Indian figurative style and embody his constant pursuit to evolve and contemporize that iconography. His work explores identity, iconography and urban mythology and it’s evolution from one generation to the next.
“Most of my works are all about identity and displacement. We live in a very transient world and it’s not something new that I have discovered. We live in an interesting time when the world is shrinking in so many ways in terms of communication and access to information. As an artist I think it is most exciting to be living in these times because the role of an artist is to find relevance and create maps of relevance and of contexts of his or her time.” Owais Husain
Having traveled and shown work extensively throughout Asia and North America, START Art Fair is an ideal platform for Husain to re-engage with London where he is perhaps best known as a filmmaker having debuted his documentary Letters to My Son About My Father at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2014. Continuing this duality as both a filmmaker and an artist Husain’s work explores the notion of the artist as a storyteller charting the visual lexicons of their time for the next generation.
About the artist Owais Husain
Husain was born in 1967 in Mumbai and graduated with his Fine Arts degree from Sir J.J School of Art in 1990. His work has been featured in numerous group and solo exhibits throughout galleries and museums throughout the world, and he continues to participate in a variety of public art projects, art fairs and film festivals. Owais Husain currently lives and works in Dubai.
He has exhibited in numerous group and solo shows at galleries and museums across India including the National Museum of Art and Tao Gallery, Mumbai (1995 – 2010), Vadehra Gallery, New Delhi (1995-1998), Gallery 88 Calcutta (2000), and Sakshi Gallery Bangalore (1994); and internationally at the Tate Modern, London (2001), Aicon Gallery New York (2006), the W Foundation, Seoul (2014), the Burj Khalifa and Capsule Arts, Dubai (2013, 2015), the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore (2016), Gazelli Art House at Abu Dhabi Art (2016), Floodlight Foundation at India Art Fair (2017), and Husain has most recently exhibited work at START Doha and Vida Downtown (Dubai) both in March, 2017.
Additionally, Husain has directed and produced several feature length Hindi films, 2000-2007, and an experimental music track for the Abu Dhabi Festival of Thinkers in 2009. His films have been screened at the London International Film Festival (2000), the Berlin Film Biennale (2001), the Cannes Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival (2004), the Tribeca International Film Festival, Doha (2010), and the V&A Museum, London (2014).
About START
Launched in 2014 by Parallel Contemporary Art, START Art Fair is a high profile platform for emerging artists and new art scenes from around the world. It takes place across all three floors of London’s prestigious Saatchi Gallery enabling notable collectors, curators, art connoisseurs, established art institutions and the public to discover new artistic talent in an intimate museum setting. START was founded by David and Serenella Ciclitira together with Saatchi Gallery, united by their dedication to identifying and supporting emerging talent from around the world. The fair builds on this legacy for supporting and showcasing global emerging work, and recognises the need in London for a dedicated platform that brings fresh talent to the fore in a gallery environment.