Asia Now, open in Paris last week, offered an excellent opportunity to see presentations emanating out of Asia's contemporary art scene.
Among our favourites was Iranian artist Nastaran Shahbazi's expressionistic painting, A Fish Soup (2022), presented by Galerie LJ. At once charming, unsettling, and ethereal, Shahbazi's painting pairs deep, vivid hues with moments of intimacy—a characteristic typical of the Paris-based artist's work.
In A Fish Soup, Shahbazi portrays an anonymous character eating at a table that appears somewhat secluded. Exploring themes of isolation and memory, Shahbazi's painting reveals kaleidoscopic scenery that blurs the boundaries between reality, memory, and imagination.
We also enjoyed Kenjiro Okazaki's abstract acrylic on canvas painting, Recognition of the butterfly's territory (2020), presented by galerie frank elbaz. The Japanese artist renders sublimely thick impasto in vivid turquoise, bright green, and yellow, forming a multi-layered abstraction. Rich in texture, Okazaki offers an immense sense of movement in his painting.
On display with Danysz Gallery was Indonesian artist Eko Nugroho's We are a Home (2022), a vibrant embroidered painting that portrays a surreal world in which a whirl of obscured faces are stacked atop a house-like structure. In conversation with Ocula in October 2015, Nugroho described his practice as a critique 'on current issues including immigration, the concept of phobia, and democracy'.
Nugroho's polychromatic composition is bursting with boldly outlined geometric and organic shapes, evoking the bustling environment he grew up in.
