Aakash Nihalani | Passage
June 12th – July 5th, 2015
Opening reception: Saturday, June 13th, 6-8 pm
Southampton, NY – Tripoli Gallery Southampton is pleased to present Aakash Nihalani | Passage, an exhibition of new works by the New York-based installation artist. It will be on view at 30A Jobs Lane, Southampton, NY, from June 12 through July 5, 2015, with a public opening reception on Saturday, June 13th, from 6 to 8 p.m. This is Nihalani’s second solo show at Tripoli Gallery, the first being 2013’s Aakash Nihalani: Aaranged.
Illusion and movement continue to be major themes within Nihalani’s art, overlapping and interrelating in concert with both the viewer’s interaction—direct and indirect—and the specific environment for which it is created. His colorful geometric-based interventions are meant to engage the public by creating settings that can be physically entered and inspected from various angles, transforming viewers into participants. Each installation is a reaction to the inherent architecture and geometries of the site, resulting in witty, ingenious pieces that integrate seamlessly into their surroundings—whether it be a city block, a park, or an interior wall—while also illuminating the location’s unique qualities through bold forms, vivid colors, and oblique perspectives.
Nihalani’s material experiments with canvas as both a two-dimensional pictorial surface and a three-dimensional object opens up a dialogue between sculpture and painting that, in the words of the artist, “breathes new life into the concept of what a painting can be, and how it could be viewed.” To further expand upon these concepts, this exhibition will display his most recent paintings in conjunction with his new animated digital projections, merging the works with the actions of a human performer to more deeply explore our received perceptions of gesture, context, space, and meaning.
Aakash Nihalani was born in 1986 in Queens, New York, and is currently based in Brooklyn. In 2008, he received a BFA from Steinhardt School, New York University, and in 2012 he was awarded a residency at the Willem de Kooning studio in East Hampton. In 2013, Nihalani was commissioned by the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill to create three ephemeral tape installations for the museum’s exterior wall, which were displayed throughout the summer months and coincided with his solo exhibition Aaranged at Tripoli Gallery in Southampton. His work has been shown both in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Rome, New Delhi, and London, and featured in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Times of India, Vogue India, and artinfo.com.
For press inquiries or further information, please contact stephanie@tripoligallery.com or call 631.377.3715
Above image: Aakash Nihalani, Untitled (Blue), 2014. acrylic, flashe, mixed media, canvas, corrugated plastic, wood, magnets, 18 x 47 in.