Artist's studio, photo by Umar Nadeem
Fahd Burki
“Fahd Burki’s art can leave one feeling uncertain. Though conceptually rigorous, formally exact and precisely executed, his paintings, drawings, and sculptures stubbornly insist on ambiguity. They are almost impossible to place. Whether narrative scenes or flattened icons, his images often lack a background; without a specific cultural frame or spatial context to help locate them they hover in an atopia or, rather, a dystopia of infinite reference, outside of time and history.”
- Murtaza Vali
Installation view, Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA) curated by Nav Haq, 2017. Photo by Hendrik Zeitler
Daydreams: Fahd Burki curated by Dawn Ross, installation view, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE, 2022. Photo by Ismail Noor
Liar, 2012, perspex, cedar, rope and iron, 201.2 x 5.5 x 45.5 cm
Bliss, 2014, acrylic and pen on paper, 152 x 122 cm
Parameter, 2008, felt tip pen and pencil on paper, 213 x 152 cm
“It's not enough to say that Fahd Burki's work has evolved over the years—his shifting practice seems to be in a perpetual process of subtraction.
What began as a turn towards abstraction for the Lahore-based artist has moved to dissolution: a spare approach to pictorial space stripped of all ornament.”
- Nadine Khalil
Compositions of Rest and Play, installation view, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore, India, 2015
Beach, 2021, acrylics on canvas, 84 x 64 x 3 cm
Amaryllis, 2020, wood, canvas, acrylic paint, 100.2 x 70 x 4.1 cm
“Burki’s muted palette, translucent acrylic washes, and thin, precise lines do not demand our attention or command our vision, avoiding the strong, and often quick, retinal impact that characterizes most geometric abstraction. Shy rather than brash, these consciously understated works insist that we consider them slowly and carefully. They encourage intimate encounters that are not limited to the visual, priming us to register all the sensorial richness of their incremental shifts, gentle gradients, and degrees of (mis)alignment.”
- Murtaza Vali
Dwelling (grey), 2020, wood, ply, acrylic paint, 90.7 x 64.4 x 4 cm
Archer, 2021, acrylics on beech wood, 152.5 x 152.5 x 4 cm. Commissioned by Art Jameel
Daydreams: Fahd Burki curated by Dawn Ross, installation view, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE, 2022. Photo by: Ismail Noor