Aakash Nihlani - Amruta Buge (Artist Research #3)

Aakash Nihlani 

"Portal" tape on wall, new york, NY

"Dapwell" (with Ashok Kondabolu present in picture)

Poster Boy and Aakash Nihalani, selected collaborations, 2008 - 2010

Aakash Nihlani, tape and corrugated board, brooklyn, NY (photo by noah kalina)

 

fill in, tape and corrugated board on wall, new delhi, india

Sites such as the one above are very common in India. Half-built buildings, old buildings of several storeys from which paint is stripped off yearly due to the heavy monsoons. Finding patterns are creating engaging artwork out of ordinary, and mostly dull places is fascinating.    

(detail)

courtyard, tape on ground, de kooning artist in residence, hamptons, NY
(photo by lovis ostenrik)

upright, acrylic on wood, 108.75” x 46.5” x 2”, jonathan levine gallery, new york, NY

The simplicity in all these isometric forms (mainly squares and rectangles), yet the complexity and surprise involved in the final product draws me to his artwork. The viewer is forced to look twice and interact with it, achieving this is important for me as an audience and as an artist.

Where do you draw influence? (Interview with Design Milk)

A series of window panes that make a math equation, a stop sign set against industrial Brooklyn architecture, a violinist playing on the subway platform, a patch of exposed brick on a concrete wall, a vine growing in the shape of a waterfall, pyramids of stacked fruit at the corner stand, discolored tiles on the train station down the block.

On his website he mentions, "I am trying to offer people a chance to step into a different New York than they are use to seeing, and in turn, momentarily escape from routine schedules and lives…I'm just connecting dots differently to make my own picture. Others need to see that they can create too, connecting their own dots, in their own places."

Aakash's most recent work can be found on his blog.