Press Release for Aicon Contemporary
Aicon Contemporary has responded to the COVID-19 quarantine/lockdown in a creative way. Rather than sitting and waiting, this New York City-based gallery, which specializes in modern and contemporary art from South Asia, decided to make movies about the art it shows, To take art to the world, as the world could not come to see it.
It started with M. F. Husain’s historic painting The Attenborough Panels | Untitled (After “Gandhi”). New York City in March is usually a hub of art activity. This year, instead, it looks like a ghost town. Canceled sales, closed galleries, and postponed exhibitions. Because March is a very active month in the Asian art world in New York, Aicon Contemporary chose to unveil a once in a lifetime find, a huge painting by M. F. Husain, made in 1983, right after the movie Gandhi had been released to great success. Aicon Contemporary had planned a social evening on March 17th, right in between the Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions, to celebrate the work. And then COVID struck. So, to tell a fascinating story about a fascinating painting, Aicon Contemporary took to film making and social media – https://youtu.be/u_vEBp4vu_w
The short film on the Attenborough Panels was very well received, with lots of reposts, shares, and views on both IGTV and YouTube. Encouraged, Aicon Contemporary decided to make more movies, to turn what had been a response around a single painting, into a larger strategy to take art out of the gallery and into people’s homes. The second movie was made on G. R. Iranna, called “Site Specific” It prominently features the Venice Biennale work – https://youtu.be/rwozTkOezYQ
At the same time as the Husain painting Attenborough Panels was being exhibited, so was a solo show by a Brooklyn based Pakistani-American sculptor Ruby Chishti. Her being New York-based presented some wonderful opportunities, like having the record video footage of her working in the studio. So with new and old footage, Aicon Contemporary produced “The Tide Turns” on Ruby Chisti’s recent work – https://youtu.be/A1iOdzjmuqg
Aicon Contemporary is now working on more film projects, covering upcoming shows, and artists who are represented by the gallery. In the hopper are movies about Adeela Suleman, Abir Karmakar, Katja Larsson, and a group show featuring women abstractionists Grace Beck, Mary Chevalier, Sathi Guin, Dhara Mehrotra, and Shobha Broota. All of the videos can be seen at Aicon Contemporary’s YouTube channel.
Images Courtesy Aicon Contemporary
Find out more about the Artists and Gallery:
http://www.aicongallery.com/exhibitions
https://ocula.com/artists/ruby-chishti/
http://www.aicongallery.com/artists/adeela-suleman/a-exhibition
http://www.aicongallery.com/artists/abir-karmakar/a-exhibitions
