Looking Forward while Looking Back
With works by Sanie Bokhari, Lisa O'Donnell and Yohana M. Roa.
Curated by Elisa Gutiérrez Eriksen
November 13 - December 3, 2020
Virtual Exhibition
NARS Foundation is happy to present To Re-center as part of the Looking Forward while Looking Back Series. This iteration presents the works of Sanie Bokhari, Lisa O’Donnell and Yohana M. Roa.
Starting from ritualistic, historical, and personal narratives, Bokhari, Roa and O´Donell entwine elements that create different portrayals, each of them with a singular approach based on the opposition of elements: beauty vs fright, transmission of information vs knowledge, the historical context vs memory.
They have developed a unique language that edifies new tales built from historical archives, elements of folklore and traditions, and memory. They center their attention in the expansion of the female perspective as a path to re-signify the present.
About the artists:
Sarah Bokhari
Exploring Pakistani folklore, my practice reimagines the female figure as a protagonist and idol. In some works female figures gracefully swim and dance. In others they triumphantly carry swords and severed heads. Water becomes a channel of both leisure and danger as I embrace opposed forces of beauty and fright. This bizarre mix of rituals could never exist in reality and develops into a unique ceremonial language. By constructing intricate visual and psychological spaces through painting and drawing, my narratives intend to evoke a sense of disquieted joy that comes from upturning the tenets of tradition, whilst also attempting to understand their evolutionary significance in a historical context.
Lisa O'Donnell
London based, Irish artist whose painting practice uses feminist and revisionist methodologies to expand and interpret the narratives of ground-breaking 20th-century Irish women’s histories. She is currently completing a practice-led PhD at the Royal College of Art London. She explores the notion of contemporary history painting and her work reconsiders, transforms and expands collected archive material. The paintings create imagined and altered scenes and scenarios, facilitating a space for invention and expansion of incomplete and partial narratives.
Yohanna M. Roa
Yohanna M. Roa is a Colombian-American Visual Artist, who currently lives in NYC. She is a transdisciplinary artist. Her work reflects the forms and conditions of transmission of information and knowledge, the transformations and re-significations of the images arising from the relationship between content, media, contexts and geographical relationships, with emphasis on archiving practices and gender perspectives. She has a master's degree in visual arts from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and an undergraduate degree in visual arts – INDEBA, Colombia. She recently opened the exhibition: "The Past Instructions for its Use" in La Bodega Gallery NY. She has a large number of individual and collective exhibitions such as Looking At Contemporary Photography, Ruiz & Healy art Gallery, and Art Fair Plattform Zur Präsentation Von Kunstinitiativenin Karlsruhe plus internationale Gäste Germany.
Due to COVID regulations, attendance is limited for the opening reception.
NARS Foundation Galleries are open to the public from 12pm - 5pm, Monday - Friday. Please contact info@narsfoundation.org with any other inquires.
