Raqib Shaw: 10 Exhibitions to See in Chicago This Summer Guide
By Natalie Jenkins
Raqib Shaw: Paradise Lost
The Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois
Through January 19
The richness of Raqib Shaw’s painting cannot be overstated. Impossibly detailed through a meticulous method of intricate acrylic lining followed by the injection of enamel paints, Shaw’s 100-foot-wide Paradise Lost (2009–2025) gleams, humming with the magic of its materiality and epic story. The behemoth composition tackles its biblical source material with an autobiographical spin, moving through the artist’s life in Kashmir and the London art world and ending with a tragic yet liberating rebirth. An encounter with the work is certainly formidable, but through close attention, a space for contemplation of shared histories and distant sanctuaries emerges.
