I DE V / l’étrangère is delighted to announce A Handful of Paradise, a solo presentation of sculptures and paper tapestries by award-winning British artist, Saad Qureshi. The exhibition will also mark the launch of I DE V / l’étrangère, an agency with a viewing room established by curators Isabel de Vasconcellos (I DE V) and Joanna Gemes (l’étrangère).
Described by the Observer’s Laura Cumming as “one of our most pensive and poetic artists”, Qureshi has established an international reputation for his beautiful and lyrical work which spans painting, works on paper and sculpture. Often exploring spiritual and dreamlike themes, Qureshi’s work gives form to the ideas or stories by which we lend meaning to human existence.
A Handful of Paradise is Qureshi’s first commercial exhibition in London since 2017. It includes a new body of work made for I DE V / l’étrangère, developing themes from his Something About Paradise exhibition, conceived for the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2020) and recently shown at Djanogly Art Gallery (2024).
Exploring the idea of what paradise means in a contemporary context, the works have their origin in Qureshi’s fascination with how broad and various interpretations of paradise are. In 2019, the artist travelled around the country asking people of all faiths and none what the word conjured up for them. Drawing these imagined spaces together, he created three large mindscapes evoking a collective topography spanning the globe and beyond: urban and rural, heavenly bodies and personal as well as spiritual utopias.
Returning to this reservoir of remembered and imagined places, A Handful of Paradise is a new body of sculpture reflecting on how we conserve and protect our most precious memories and belongings. It takes the form of domestic drawers reclaimed from house clearances, second hand shops and friends. Within each drawer, the artist is collecting a clutch of fragments of paradise. Rendered in greys and whites, these small mindscapes have the quality of memories or daydreams, at one remove from the space they share with their viewers.
The sculptures meditate on the poetic notion of home and paradise not as a physical place, but a state of mind that you arrive at: what the artist describes as “a form of mental destination. My vision of paradise, is that it is somewhere that keeps evolving and transforming as we move through life.” These drawers, sundered from their original containers and already freighted with a history of past homes and moments, are placed on legs and wheels, to aid them in their onward journey.
The exhibition will also be the first London presentation of Qureshi’s Tanabana paper tapestries, which have been widely shown in the USA, India and the Middle East. The Tanabana series is rooted in Qureshi’s experience growing up in a family where the art of making by hand was an important shared experience and textiles were particularly prized and valued. Originally working from the collection of textiles he grew up with, the Tanabanas have expanded to take in carpets and textiles both decorative and practical, and more recently to include elements from sacred architecture, such as arches and stained glass-windows.
Using many different textiles or motifs in each Tanabana, the process begins by digitally reproducing them onto paper, cutting them into thin strips which are then meticulously rewoven by hand to form completely new patterns. In Buddhist philosophy, the universe is thought of as a weaving: to weave is to produce cosmos, with the movement of the shuttle upon the cosmic loom signifying the alternation of life and death. In these mesmerising works, Qureshi has transformed and reanimated the ghosts of the original textiles and architectures, creating new woven worlds which assimilate the ancient with the modern.
Concurrent with A Handful of Paradise, there are several opportunities to see works by Qureshi elsewhere in London. From 22nd June 2024 – 13th December 2024, HS Projects is staging a solo presentation of recent sculptures, including works from Something About Paradise (first shown, Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2020).
Qureshi’s Frieze/ The OWO Prize-winning commission Convocation is on display at Raffles in Whitehall, central London. Qureshi’s Organ Donor Memorial for the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel is permanently installed at the entrance to the Renal Unit.
Open Wednesday - Saturday, 12 - 6pm & by appointment
For further information on Saad Qureshi and I DE V / l’étrangère:
Isabel de Vasconcellos: office@idev-art.com
Press Enquiries:
Celia Bailey PR bailey_celia@hotmail.com +44 (0)7930 442 411
Saad Qureshi (1986) Saad Qureshi received his BA in Fine Art from Oxford Brookes University in 2007 and an MFA in Painting from The Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 2010.
Recent solo exhibitions include the Djanogly Art Gallery (at Lakeside Arts, Nottingham University); Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield; and Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi. Group exhibitions include the Aga Khan Centre Gallery, London; I'Institut des Cultures d'Islam, Paris; Museum Arnhem, Netherlands; Kunsthall 3,14, Bergen; Drawing Room, London; and White Project Gallery, Paris.
Winner of The Frieze & The OWO Sculpture Prize, Convocation is on view at Raffles London. Also in 2023, Saad Qureshi was commissioned to realise a permanent Organ Donor Memorial for the Royal London Hospital at Whitechapel. He was shortlisted for the 2021 SkyArts LANDMARKS public art prize, and has realised public commissions at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford and for LandSec at Victoria, London.
His work has been acquired by public collections including the Dipti Mathur Collection, California; The Farjam Foundation Collection, Dubai; the UNESCO Creative Cities Collection, Beijing; The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi; the Bagri Collection, London; the Almarkhiya Gallery, Qatar; and the Saudia Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art (SAMoCA), as well as private collections around the world.
Saad Qureshi is a Trustee of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. He features in Thames & Hudson’s 100 Sculptors of Tomorrow. www.saadqureshi.com
55 Riding House Street, Fitzrovia, London W1W 7EE
Photography by Lucy Dawkins and Hugh Pryor