Rashid Rana
War Within II, 2013
C print + DIASEC 240 x 600 cm / 94 1/2 x 236 in
Widely considered to be the leading Pakistani artist of his generation, Rashid Rana first came to prominence in South Asia before gaining wider, international exposure after the millennium. In his photography, sculpture and digital printmaking, Rana transposes imagery from one time and place to another, through manipulation, repetition and rearrangement. His early photomontages – originally made by painstakingly reconfiguring tiny squares of imagery into micro-mosaics by hand, latterly by using computer software – turned hundreds of graphic slaughterhouse snapshots into facsimiles of Persian rugs (Red Carpet, 2007). Rana’s telescoping of politics, civilizations and time also appears in three-dimensions, in works from the series Desperately Seeking Paradise (2007-2011), which splice Lahore’s humble streets and houses with the architectural promise of skyscrapers and the slick lines of Minimalism. Rana's wall-sized Crowds are similarly tumultuous composites formed of innumerable multitudes of human protest and unrest, and his Languages series (2011-2012) crosses the cultural rubicon between historical and contemporary art, obliterating iconic works by Jacques Louis David and Gerhard Richter with data streams made up of horizontal strips of miniature interlocking bytes of visual information.
Rashid Rana was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1968 where he lives and works. He trained as a painter at the National College of Arts in Lahore and at the Massachusetts College of Fine Arts in Boston, MA, USA. He is the founding faculty member and head of the Fine Art department at Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan. Solo exhibitions include the Pakistan pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, Italy (2015); 'Labyrinth of Reflections' at Mohatta Palace Museum, Karachi, Pakistan (2013); Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK (2011) and Musée Guimet, Paris, France (2010). Rana has participated in group exhibitions at Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany (2018); FOR-SITE Foundation, San Francisco, CA, USA (2017); Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2016); Kiev Biennial, Ukraine (2012); Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2010); Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2010); Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2010); and the Asia Society, New York, NY, USA (2009).
Courtesy of lissongallery.com