Raqib Shaw at Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague

Raqib Shaw is a London-based artist who is known for his opulent paintings of imagined paradises. Galerie Rudolfinum in Prague is currently presenting a representative selection of the works of Raqib Shaw. The exhibition was designed through direct interaction with the artist in cooperation with the Manchester Art Gallery. The solo show runs until September 15, 2013.

In this report, Raqib Shaw explains the overall approach to painting and his painting technique. In the second part of the interview the artist talks about the monumental painting Paradise Lost.

Raqib Shaw at Rudolfinum Gallery, Prague (Czech Republic). Interview with Raqib Shaw, June 6, 2013. Video by Frantisek Zachoval.

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Raqib Shaw grew up in Kashmir and left India in 1998 for London where he studied for both his BA and MA at Central St Martins School of Art. In his work, the author combines narrative form, unique technology, autobiographical and psychological processes in a monumental opus. In Prague it is possible to see the series Absence of God (2007-2009); the series Suites (2012), the series Paradise Lost (2001-2012) whose dominant painting is a nine-meter work transcending Shaw’s lost Eden of the legendary natural beauty of Kashmir; the series Whimsy Beasties (2012); and particular works as Garden of Earthly Delights, Synopsis (2010-2012), Ode to the Fireballs of Pleasure (2011), Ode to the First Tonbo Dance / Ode to the Second Tonbo Dance (2011), Invasion of the Divine Fireballs (2011) and the bronze statue Small Adam (2011).

Selected solo exhibitions include Raqib Shaw, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester (2013); Of Beasts And Super-beasts, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris (2012); Paradise Lost, White Cube – Mason’s Yard, London (2011); Absence of God, Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz, Vienna (2009); Raqib Shaw at the Met, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City (2008); Art Now – Raqib Shaw, Tate Britain, London (2006); Raqib Shaw – Garden of Earthly Delights, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami (2006); Raqib Shaw, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (2004).

Shaw participated in the Ukrainian Biennale of Contemporary Art, Kiev (2012); Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane (2012); Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (2010); Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2006); Prague Biennale, Prague (2005).

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