November 2013 saw Raqib Shaw exhibit at Pace Gallery New York. Held across three venues in the city and based on the theme of John Milton’s Paradise Lost this was Shaw’s first public presentation in New York since his 2008 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Included in the Pace exhibition were ten paintings, three sculptures, and five drawings.
“The works depict opulent scenes of beastly anthropomorphic figures amidst fantastical worlds of idyllic skies and classical ruins. A fusion of Indian mythological figures, hybrids of man and beast, warring in landscapes inspired by quattrocento and Renaissance painting. They are a synthesis of Indian miniatures painted with precision and delicacy and Western classical architecture inspired by Carlo Crivelli’s The Annunciation in the National Gallery, London. Shaw’s series can be interpreted as a direct confrontation between East and West where the shattered monuments suggest the triumph of the East.” – Pace Gallery.
Paradise Lost, Pace Gallery 2013-2014.
Installation photograph courtesy Pace Gallery.
Artworks photographed by Prudence Cummings Associates, Kerry Ryan McFate, Ellen Broughton and Tom Barratt.