In the exhibition Homecoming, Imran Qureshi presents the most recent iteration of his miniature painting practice. The mesmerising landscapes are poised between refined technique and an ever-growing sense of artistic freedom. They are accompanied by works in which fragments of intricate landscapes in the style and palette of the artist’s miniature paintings are woven into map-like compositions, reworking past motifs in what Imran Qureshi describes as his artistic ‘look back at my own journey’ through the genre.
Watch a video of the artist discussing the exhibition
Imran Qureshi learned the exacting craft of miniature painting in his native Pakisan. His pioneering practice constantly confronts the traditional artform, which emerged in the court of the Mughal Empire in the 16th century, with contemporary contexts. The highly symbolic scenes he depicts bring out the frail beauty of the natural world in a comment on current environmental and political threats.
Creating a dialogue between the tradition of miniature painting and the contemporary landscape has always been central to Imran Qureshi’s practice. The exaggerated crescent of the horizon line at the heart of several of the works traditionally symbolises the globe seen from afar, bringing together micro- and macroscopic perspectives of the world within the same image.
Imran Qureshi
Other Side Story, 2023
Gouache and gold leaf on wasli paper
35.5 x 28.6 cm (13.98 x 11.26 in)
Alongside the more familiar miniature paintings, the exhibition presents deconstructed works in which fragments of landscapes float across the surface of Imran Qureshi’s characteristic handmade wasli paper, which he leaves partly bare. An uprooted tree fallen on its side represents the changing landscapes of our ecologically fragile world.
Imran Qureshi
Easy Cutting, 2023
Gouache and Letraset transfer on wasli paper
27.2 x 35.6 cm (10.7 x 14 in)
Dry-transferred dots recall targets as seen on missile guidance systems, which, in the context of 21st-century conflicts, have become an all too familiar lens through which to see the world. Stitch-like lines, meanwhile, resemble geographical partitions on a map, while also evoking surgical sutures, as if the fabric of the landscape had been cut and sewn back together in a in a suggestion of division and reconciliation.
Imran Qureshi
Easy Cutting, 2023
Gouache and Letraset transfer on wasli paper
35.6 x 27.2 cm (14 x 10.7 in)
Easy Cutting, 2023
Gouache and Letraset transfer on wasli paper
34.3 x 26.7 cm (13.5 x 10.5 in)
Exploring the scars left on the landscape by such conflicts, the artist retraces past motifs, including the missile that was emblematic of his miniature paintings from the turn of the 21st century. Disarmed through its incongruous beauty, the weapon is here wrapped in forests of vines and briar as if gradually being reclaimed by nature.
Imran Qureshi
Threatened, 2023
Gouache and gold leaf on wasli paper
35.3 x 27.7 cm (13.9 x 10.91 in)
Camouflaged Love, 2023
Gouache and gold leaf on wasli paper
35.3 x 27.6 cm (13.9 x 10.87 in)
‘When I was making these paintings’, says the artist, ‘the autumn season was just finishing, and spring was coming.’ This sense of endings and beginnings is reflected in the rich transitional colours that characterise the works in the exhibition. In this miniature painting, a mass of ochre leaves is raked, like at the end of autumn, to the centre of a field of newly blossoming flowers. Rooted in the tonal sensibility of traditional miniature painting, Imran Qureshi’s placement of these vibrant colours side by side animates the surfaces of the works.
Imran Qureshi
Scattered, Yet Together, 2023
Gouache and gold leaf on wasli paper
35.5 x 27.5 cm (13.98 x 10.83 in)
The artist qualifies himself as ‘intrigued by accident’. The preciousness of his new miniature paintings is tempered with spontaneity in a delicate balance between intricacy and artistic liberty. As dragonflies swarm, dashed lines cover the surfaces of several works like rainstorms. These lines, which miniature painters make around the edges of the paper to test their brush or pen, would typically be covered in the final work, but Imran Qureshi leaves them visible, making the act of painting an essential component of the finished piece.
Imran Qureshi
Where the Shadows Are So Deep, 2023
Gouache and gold leaf on wasli paper
29.7 x 22.1 cm (11.7 x 8.7 in)
