EXPO Chicago: Booth 252

Fridman Gallery presents an installation of works in dialogue by Navine G. Khan-Dossos and Reuven Israel. Both artists question social ideologies that inform their practices in unique ways. Khan-Dossos’ panel paintings combine geometric abstraction with the traditional aniconism of Islamic art. Often using militant propaganda as source materials, she approaches painting as ‘informational’ acts in
which fields of knowledge are built from what the artist refers to as “the conflicted and complex relationship of Islam to the West”. Israel’s sculptures, while also referencing religious and military symbolism, have an air of independent reality: rather than abstracting specific things, they strive for autonomy as unidentifiable objects. Khan-Dossos will premiere a new series “Infoesque” that recasts Rumiyah – ISIS’s main propaganda magazine that uses Western-style infographics – as more traditional Islamic patterns and arabesques. Also shown will be “Studies for Sterlina” based on Facebook posts and online media reports of a young Dutch woman who traveled to Syria and married an ISIS fighter. We will also exhibit one of Khan-Dossos’ “Printer Paintings” composed from the principal tones of color printing – CMYK and grey – contrasted with the RGB palette of the works derived from online
materials. Israel’s sculptures are handcrafted – chiseled of MDF wood, sanded and colored in industrial paints – so meticulously, that they confuse a viewer into thinking they are machine-made on an assembly line. In shape and surface, they adopt features of porcelain, plastic and metal. Questioning human tendencies to categorize and charge objects with ideological and linguistic meanings, the sculptures initially evoke concrete associations, such as furniture, science fiction,
religious artifacts and architecture, only to leave the viewers struck by their inability to define them. Khan-Dossos reconstructs tiles, domes and other elements of Islamic architecture as two-dimensional panels whilst Israel paints his spire- or missile-like sculptures in flamboyant, vibrant colors, expressing the objects’ independence and energy. Each artist’s works are transcendental and defiant.