Akara Art presents Zarina 1980 – 2000: The Nostalgic Decades. The artist, Zarina, came to art late in life and found her true voice even later. Her work from the 1980s until the start of the new millennium was driven by nostalgia. The unlikely vehicles for her expressive nostalgia were floor plans: of her father’s house in Aligarh and other dwellings she had inhabited around the globe. Diagrammatic floor plans are among the most utilitarian of illustrations but, in Zarina’s hands, with a few carefully crafted stains and smudges disturbing their strict linearity and the addition of evocative titles, they became carriers of profound emotion, effectively conveying her sense of loss, displacement, and yearning.
Zarina’s oeuvre expanded in new directions in the 21st century, while retaining its intellectual and formal rigour, cementing her place as one of her generation’s most important artists. However, viewers culturally attuned to her references and style have a special bond with the art of her nostalgic decades, especially the pathbreaking etchings and woodblock prints of the 1990s.
Find out more about the exhibition here.