Aakash Nihalani Egress 5 acrylic on wood 30.5 x 53 x .75 inches (77.47 x 134.62 x 1.91 cm)
Aakash Nihalani 8 J acrylic on wood 28.5 x 28.5 x .75 inches (72.39 x 72.39 x 1.9 cm)
Aakash Nihalani Out-n-In 1 acrylic on canvas 24 x 24 inches (60.96 x 60.96 cm)
Aakash Nihalani Whole 2 acrylic on wood 36 x 36 x 1.75 inches (91.44 x 91.44 x 4.45 cm)
Aakash Nihalani Egress 4 acrylic on wood 59.5 x 60 x .75 inches (151.13 x 152.4 x 1.91 cm)
Aakash Nihalani Upright acrylic on wood 108.75 x 46.5 x 2 inches (276.22 x 118.11 x 5 cm)
On until February 9th 2013 Jonathan LeVine Gallery 529 West 20th Street, 9th floor New York, NY 10011 jonathanlevinegallery.com/
Portal is a series of new works by New York-based artist Aakash Nihalani.
Known in the street art community for his fluorescent tape interventions, Nihalani combines a bright colour palette with geometric abstract shapes, resulting in striking contrasts within the context of the urban landscape. Expanding on his exploration of form and space, the artist continues to build upon this body of work in his studio practice, through works on canvas and wooden panels.
Nihalani’s bold, flat shapes continue to evolve into complex multi-dimensional patterns, often producing intricate optical illusions that challenge the viewer’s relationship with their surrounding environment. The imagery appears to extend or recede from the surface of the picture plane through the artist’s carefully developed variations on colour theory and architectural elements with influences of Op art and Mathematical perspectives.
The artist enjoys the interactive effect of his work in the gallery setting as well as on the street. His exhibitions often include site-specific installations created with tape, similar to his public interventions, which complement his paintings and freestanding sculptures. The accessible quality of Nihalani’s imagery connects with a wide audience, much like the adhesive nature of his original medium.
In Nihalani’s words, “I try to create a new visual space within the physical confines of any piece I work on, through the illusion of three-dimensional imagery contained on a two-dimensional plane. When looking at the work—orientation shifts, shapes merge, direction inverts, foreground becomes background and vice versa. In observing the differences in how we process this information, one becomes aware of how subjective perception can be and how we choose to view reality, individually.”
jonathanlevinegallery.com/
ABOUT THE ARTIST
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 (NYU). In 2012, he was awarded a residency at the Willem de Kooning studio, located in East Hampton, NY. Nihalani’s colorful geometric-based work spans across sculpture, multimedia, interactive video, street interventions and photography, it has been exhibited internationally and featured in a number of publications including: The New York Times, The Times of India and Vogue India.
