FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Twelve Gates Arts is honored to present Fragments of a City’s Memory, a group exhibition curated by Zainab Hakim featuring work by Noor Ali Chagani, Mashiul Chowdhury, and Belal Khaled. Fragments of a City’s Memory opens on Friday November 1st, 2024.
Opening Reception: November 1st, 5:00-7:30pm
(Twelve Gates Arts located at 106 N 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106)
Exhibition Information:
“Someone soaks the wicks of clay lamps
in mustard oil, each night climbs its steps
to read messages scratched on planets.”
– Agha Shahid Ali, The Country Without a Post Office
In Fragments of a City’s Memory, artists Noor Ali Chagani, Mashiul Chowdhury, and Belal Khaled, collectively consider who is allowed to live and breathe in a city. Chagani hails from Sindh, Chowdhury from Dhaka, and Khaled from Palestine, each working in vastly different locations amongst incomparable circumstances. Together, they examine how native cultures are erased by oppressors, excluded from the historical narrative. They question whose lives are counted, who migrates, and who is left with no choice but to flee. How does this valuing of life appear or not appear in the markings of a city?
Noor Ali Chagani's miniature terracotta bricks serve as a metaphor for the building blocks of urban life, inviting viewers to consider the foundations upon which urban identities are built. His work speaks to the physical and emotional architecture of cities, particularly in the context of his native Sindh. Chagani's recent works expand on these themes, focusing on the marks left by migrated people on urban structures. His pieces, inspired by railway stations in London where he is now based and other parts of the UK, capture the historical wear and tear and the prominent differences in structures shaped by recent migrations. Through depictions of different types of bricks, repairs, and unexpected elements emerging from walls, Chagani reflects on how these historical marks represent his own experience as an immigrant.
Also examining the markings of humanity, Mashiul Chowdhury's abstract interpretations of urban landscapes translate the overlooked traces of human activity into compelling visual narratives. His art celebrates the vibrancy and complexity of city life, finding beauty in the mundane, meaning in the marginal, and casually unearthing big political shifts on city walls, tracing a journey from Dhaka to Philadelphia and the cities in between. Chowdhury interprets the recent protests in Bangladesh similarly, which took place in July and August of this year. The writing on the walls of the city, in this case Dhaka, are spontaneous, authentic, and free as reflected in the student movements resistance of the discriminatory government. These energies are reflected in both Chowdhary’s video work and his paintings.
Belal Khaled’s calligraphic and mural art practice in Palestine and Turkey has taken precise political form within the devastation of Gaza. His murals have been intentionally destroyed alongside the consequential destruction of his artwork upon buildings in Gaza that were bombed by Israel. Artwork that once adorned the city's walls, contributing to the aesthetic vitality of the communities it was part of, now acquires new meaning when faced with the threat and reality of destruction. Khaled’s calligraphic work in this exhibition writes over and within the devastation, serving to reclaim the city in the face of endless violence.
At its core, Fragments of a City’s Memory explores cities as living, breathing entities - organic structures that bear the imprints of countless lives, migrations, cultural shifts, and historical epochs. Artists Noor Ali Chagani, Mashiul Chowdhury, and Belal Khaled interrogate urban existence through highly varied mediums. Together, they consider belonging and markings of humanity across urban spaces amidst sociopolitical conditions and landscapes of resistance.
Exhibition Information: Fragments of a City’s Memory is a group exhibition curated by Zainab Hakim featuring work by Noor Ali Chagani, Mashiul Chowdhury, and Belal Khaled. It is on view from November 1st, 2024 to December 20th, 2024 at Twelve Gates Arts, 106 North 2nd St. Philadelphia, PA 19106.
Gallery Hours: Thursday-Saturday 11 AM - 5 PM or by appointment.
About Twelve Gates Arts
Founded in 2011, Twelve Gates Arts (12G) is an arts gallery located in Old City, Philadelphia that highlights South Asian diasporic artistic voices within the local cultural landscape. 12G quarterly visual exhibitions and community events focus on an emerging art landscape that maps the cultures of migration, inclusive of the systems that influence it: race, gender, creed, empire, and economy. A nod to the archetypal fortified walls that surround Imperial medieval cities worldwide, our namesake underlies our exhibitions and events, which celebrate the melange of cultural identity that foments as peoples move and settle.
Artist Bios :
Zainab Hakim is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she studied History of Art and Islamic Studies. She previously worked on the exhibits “Souq Stories: Gaza Lives” and “Shadow and Light: Solidarity and Connection with Iraqi Academics”. Zainab wrote a History of Art thesis titled "Beyond the Censored: Queer Readerly Engagement in "Other" Comic Worlds”, for which she won the Henry P. Tappan Award for Academic Excellence. The paper explored graphic depictions of mental and physical transformation and how the formal qualities of comics can leave them open to queer readings. In the future, Zainab hopes to continue her studies in South Asian art. In her free time, she enjoys reading fiction, drawing, and visiting national parks.
Noor Ali Chagani was born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan. A Lahore-based artist, he creates works comprised of hand-made miniature terracotta bricks to demonstrate his unique take as a sculptor on the tradition of miniature painting. His work revolves around the concept of the absence of home; his quest for a personal space that he can call his own. Chagani received his BS Degree in Computer Science in Karachi and then later BFA in Miniature Painting from National College of Arts, Lahore and has since exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Pakistan, India, UAE, UK, Netherlands, Bahrain and United States. His first exhibition in the US was ETHEREAL, at Leila Heller Gallery, New York curated by Dr. Amin Jaffer. Chagani was awarded the Victoria and Ablert’s Jameel prize residency in 2016 which he was nominated for in 2011. He was awarded with guest residency in Rijks Academy, Netherlands in 2012 and Riwaq Art Space residency in Bahrain 2013. In 2023, his solo exhibition “The Story of an Outsider” was shown at the Wardown House Museum and Gallery in Luton, UK, and in 2024, he was awarded the Emerging Artist Award South Asia by The Art Family in London. Chagani’s artwork has been featured in numerous publications such as Los Angeles Times, Asia Pacific Arts, L’Opitimum n°23, Global Citizen 13 magazine, Nafas Art Magazine and several daily local newspapers.
Mashiul Chowdhury is a Philadelphia-based artist and an alumnus of Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts (PAFA). He is in the faculty of Penn Studio School of Art , Cerulean Arts in Philadelphia and several other art institutes. Mashiul Chowdhury was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He grew up and went to medical school in Bangladesh, and immigrated to the US in his late 20s. Mashiul started to attend alumni figure drawing sessions at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia (PAFA) in 2002. He is driven primarily by abstract expression. His work has been shown in juried art exhibits at Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia Sketch Club, Cerulean Art Gallery, Blink Art Gallery. Mashiul has had more than a dozen solo exhibits at various prestigious art galleries and art centers in Philadelphia, Wilmington and Dhaka Art Center in Bangladesh. Mashiul’s work has won multiple awards including Best Landscape Award at the 151st Small Oil painting show in 2014 at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, honorable mention at the same show in the previous year. His work also won an honorable mention at the 2012 Absolutely Abstract exhibit hosted by the Philadelphia Sketch Club. He won second place at “In-Person” show for his figure drawing in a national competition. In 2022, he is one of the winners of “Strokes of Genius” special edition of Artist Magazine in USA. His work is in the permanent collections of the Capital One Corporate Center in Wilmington, Del., Eastern Regional Medical Center of the Cancer Treatment Center of America and the New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Belal Khaled is a calligraphy artist who seeks to invent a new method of writing Arabic letters in an unconventional way through which he can speak with all the languages of the world. From being letters with aesthetics within their strict rules to be liberated while preserving their origin, and through his quest to devise a style that bears his own signature, taking advantage of the aesthetics of Arabic letters to create new patterns. He tries, through his own style of calligraphy , to shed light on areas of conflict and conflicts and transform the manifestations of destruction and ugly wars into works of art that carry messages of hope, love and determination to survive. Belal created a number of murals around the world using his unique style of calligraphy. These murals are often large-scale and designed to be viewed in public spaces. His murals can be found in a variety of locations, including urban areas, public parks, and cultural centers in Belgium, Qatar, Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, as well as many other countries around the world. Many of these murals are collaborations with other artists and organizations, and they often serve as a means of promoting cultural exchange and understanding.
For all press inquiries please contact aishakhan@twelvegatesarts.org