AMAR SINGH SELECTED FOR FORBES 30 UNDER 30
FORBES MAGAZINE
Intent on addressing the art world's gender imbalance, Amar Singh opened Amar Gallery to champion post-war and contemporary female artists, a collection that now includes the Guerrilla Girls, Renee Cox, and Helen Frankenthaler. The gallery also runs the online platform CURATED, supporting emerging female artists.
NICOLA PLANT'S PARTICIPATORY VIRTUAL REALITY EXHIBITION OPENS IN LONDON
FAD MAGAZINE
Nicola Plant’s exploratory practice invites the audience to use their own inherent expressivity as the re- search matter of a work that assiduously examines how it can be possible to translate the visceral experi- ence of our inner ux of emotions and sensation into a communicative form of movement.
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2018
VANITY FAIR'S PICK OF FREIZE WEEK IN LONDON
VANITY FAIR
Amar Singh’s eponymous Islington gallery has a simple but laudable ethos, specializing in exhibitions of LGBTQ and female artists with diverse, progressive narratives. Raised in London but a member of the royal Kapurthala family of Punjab, Singh was one of many political campaigners who made up a global coalition that last month recorded a landmark legal victory in India, overturning the country’s 2013 criminalization of gay sex. Now, Amar Gallery is turning to one of the lesser-known histories of art, with an exhibition of the women behind Abstract Expressionism in 1950s and 60s America.
LETS HEAR IT FOR THE LADIES WHO PAINT
SPECTATOR
Amar Singh, the owner of Amar gallery, is a tireless advocate for women’s rights in his ancestral homeland of India, and a champion of female artists at his gallery. But he is emphatic that this emphasis not entail a dilution of quality: ‘I’m only concerned with showing good art, but so much work has been overlooked due to the gender of the artist creating it. I hope this show and the mission of the gallery helps to correct this imbalance.’
FIFTIES BOYS CLUB TO ANGEL HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
ARTLYST
“The exhibition brings together a collection of works from key cultural female artists of the time – were are back in the 1950s downtown Manhattan, in the biggest market period, when the abstract expressionist movement made New York city the capital of the art world and changed the face of contemporary art.
A FEMALE ONLY AFFAIR, CELEBRATING THE WOMEN CONSIDERED TO HAVE SHAPED AN ERA
CANDID MAGAZINE
Never one to pass up an opportunity to be a pioneer, Amar Gallery’s last exhibition of 2018 is the first time a collection like this has been assembled as one in Europe. Both Singh and exhibition curator Dr. John Paul Rollert (a professor at Chicago University and Harvard – the latter at which he met and taught Singh himself) have not been shy in stamping a clear message upon this collection: that the female artists included deserve to be lauded a lot more than they have been.
'HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT' AT AMAR GALLERY SHINES LIGHT ON LEADING FEMALE LIGHTS OF ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
AFTER NYNE
Amar Gallery is currently showing Hiding In Plain Sight: an exhibition that celebrates the female artists who helped shape the golden age of abstract expressionism in mid-twentieth-century America. The first of its kind in Europe, the exhibition brings together a collection of works from key cultural progenitors of the time – women who deserve their rightful place in art history, but who have been historically overlooked in favour of their male counterparts.
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST WOMEN ON THE RISE
FAD MAGAZINE
Around 65 years after its productive highpoint, it’s interesting to speculate how the history of abstract expressionism will look in another 65 years. By the time pop and minimalist tendencies came to be seen as the newer vanguard, the received story concentrated almost entirely on white men: Pollock, Rothko, de Kooning, Newman, Kline, Motherwell…) Hiding In Plain Sight’ (at the Amar Gallery to Dec 13) provides a stimulating chance to see the women of abstract expressionism.
THE DAILY MAIL QUOTES AMAR SINGH ON INDIA'S LEGALISATION OF HOMOSEXUALITY
DAILY MAIL
Amar Singh, Amar Gallery's director, has been an LGBT rights and women's rights activist in India for over a decade. September 2018 marked the legalisation of homosexual acts in India in a monumental Supreme Court verdict.
CANDID MAGAZINE ON EVE
CANDID MAGAZINE
Amar Gallery represents a sort of Genesis story in art, with ‘Eve’ (female nature) becoming the protagonist in several artist’s different bodies of work. However, the show explores the infamous fall from grace and the aftermath of that.
ARDENT AESTHETE: IN CONVERSATION WITH AMAR SINGH
VERVE MAGAZINE
Verve Magazine highlights Amar Gallery, along with the human rights work of Amar Singh.
2017
THE ARTIST CELEBRATING BLACKNESS WITH 24-KARAT MAGIC
HUNGER MAGAZINE
There’s a sense of majesty about Lina Iris Viktor’s portraits. The British Liberian artist uses an opulent black and gold colour palette to renegotiate ideas about blackness and the African diaspora. Bringing together religious symbolism, cosmology and indigenous history – Lina’s intricate pieces position black as the colour from which all things come forth, the origin of all forms of life.
GOLDEN GIRL: THE 24-KARAT WONDERS OF LINA IRIS VIKTOR
THE GUARDIAN
This British-Liberian artist uses gold, black and little else to create mesmerising works that draw on age-old techniques.
AMAR GALLERY INTERVIEW
THE NEW YORK TIMES
The New York Times highlights Amar Gallery's new exhibition by Lina Iris Viktor and Amar's human rights work.
BLACK EXODUS
BBC
British-Liberian visual artist Lina Iris Viktor, who has a new exhibition in London, has been speaking to Focus on Africa's Mayeni Jones about her work and how celebrating her African culture has helped to deal with her family's exodus from Liberia during the 1980 coup.
AMAR GALLERY INTERVIEW
AFTER NYNE
After Nyne went to meet Amar, to see his stunning new space and get his thoughts on collecting for our Collector’s Issue.
PANDIT KHAIRNAR & PARUL THACKER AT AMAR GALLERY, LONDON
BLOUIN ARTINFO
Amar Gallery, London, is currently hosting 'Form: Flow', featuring collections of two of India’s most accomplished contemporary artists, Pandit Khairnar and Parul Thacker.
The exhibition explores complementing themes between Khairnar and Thacker, such as abstract arrangement, the relationship between natural and synthetic modes of creation, as well as representation within non-figurative form. Abstractionist Pandit Khairnar showcases his distinct yet referentially elusive oil on canvas collection. Citing V.S. Gaitonde and Prabhakar Barwe as his prime influences, Khairnar’s practice is to use industrial brushes on a flat surface, treating his canvases as two-dimensional fields where colour and light can shift in space and time. As fascinated by the effects of luminosity in his paintings as he is with the art of colour itself, Khairnar moves beyond the pigmented interplays of conventional abstract expressionism and delves into the world of atmospheric depth, infusing his creations with layer upon layer of oil paint in order to evoke a sense of subconscious rendering. Khairnar’s paintings feel like tangible memories from his past, told through a mystic yet authentic narrative of hues and tones that take him back to the idyllic farming fields of his childhood in Nashik.
HARLEM: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
Amar Singh for the Cooper Gallery, Harvard University
Harlem is no stranger to the challenges of social turbulence and cultural upheaval. In many ways, these challenges are the very bedrock upon which this neighborhood is built. Harlem was at the center of two defining movements of the twentieth century: it was the fervent crucible of the artistic, literary, and musical renaissance that flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the beating heart of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Though blessed with one of the most vivid and identifiable cultural and social legacies in modern America, it is also fitting that Harlem currently reflects the anxieties that have contributed to the volatile political landscape of the post-9/11 world. In a time when xenophobia is coming back to the fore, communities are forced to again confront issues of alienation and exclusion. It therefore feels more important than ever to celebrate a Harlem that transcends these boundaries, its soul on display in a series of works that evokes a true sense of nostalgia for Harlem—a Harlem that once was, and one that shall endure.
FORM:FLOW
ARTSY by Robin Cantwell AMAR GALLERY Editorial Director
As recorded in I Am That, the great Hindu spiritual teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj spoke of a non-duality that binds together the fabrics of the universe: an innate oneness that connects us all. It is in this same spirit that Amar Gallery brings together Pandit Khairnar and Parul Thacker, two Indian abstract artists that in many ways are binary in comparison - male and female, expressionistic and conceptual, non-figurative in feature and meticulously defined in detailed - but whose works synergise in the transcendental experiences they create, culminating in the very same non-duality of ‘being’ that Nisargadatta once visualised. Though different in all manner of material and design, the works of Khairnar and Thacker converge through the collective gaze of the viewer, their individual disciplines interconnected within a singular prism of meditative self-inquiry.
HARLEM: FOUND WAYS
COOPER GALLERY - HARVARD UNIVERSITY
With the exhibition Harlem: Found Ways, the Cooper Gallery presents artistic visions and engagements specific to Harlem, New York City, in the last decades. Each artwork employs a distinct set of inquiries and innovative strategies to explore the Harlem community’s visual heritage as it grapples with the challenges of gentrification. The artists have found ways—urgent, complex, intense, and mindful—to present the tangled threads of dilemma and paradox, memory and memorial, beauty and poignancy, and also instances of disruption and resilience within Harlem’s new realities. Collectively, they offer deeply thoughtful reflections and provocative portrayals of Harlem, allowing us to see it anew in this moment of transformation.
The fifty-five artworks, encompassing photography, mixed media, and installation, are anchored by photographer Dawoud Bey’s two portrait series: the iconic “Harlem USA, 1975–79;” and his recent series of urban landscapes “Harlem Redux, 2014–16.” A selection of works from Abigail DeVille, Glenn Ligon, Howard Tangye, Nari Ward, and Kehinde Wiley, expand and define various emergent issues in the temporal zone located between Bey’s two portrait essays. Found Ways also features a special installation of The Studio Museum in Harlem's project Harlem Postcards, 2000–2017. Featuring Amar Gallery.
LAUNCESTON PLACE UNVEILS SPRING REFURBISHMENT
Launceston Place has a wonderfully elegant and contemporary feel, with its French grey walls, blue-vein dark wood floors and a welcoming banquet seating.
Adorning the walls of Launceston Place are a series of bespoke artworks from leading contemporary artists, carefully curated by Amar Gallery to complement the ambience of the refurbished restaurant space. Inspired by the creative flair of Head Chef Ben Murphy and his menu, the collection combines figurative expression with peaceful minimalism, providing visual assurance to the unique culinary experience on offer.
The bespoke artworks come from leading contemporary artists including Lee Ufan, Julie Mehretu, Howard Tangye, and Romana Londi. Expect to be charmed as soon as you catch a glimpse of our stunning façade, which is tucked away on its namesake street, Launceston Place, in South Kensington.
ONE ARTISTS FRENZIED TAKE ON
THE TRADITIONS OF OLD MASTERS
VICE
Links, a new exhibition at Amar Gallery in London, features the abstract, animated figure drawings of Australian-born artist Howard Tangye. A retired teacher of famous designers, such as John Galliano and Stella McCartney...
HUFFINGTON POST
London welcomed the opening of a new commercial art gallery this month. The Amar Gallery, situated round the corner from Islington’s Chapel Market, aims to be not only a place to view art but also to act as a community hub in which a range of local business events can take place...
HOWARD TANGYE - AMAR GALLERY
FINE LINES: HOWARD TANGYE INAUGURATES AMAR GALLERY WITH HIS REVEALING SKETCHES
WALLPAPER MAGAZINE
London welcomed the opening of a new commercial art gallery this month. The Amar Gallery, situated round the corner from Islington’s Chapel Market, aims to be not only a place to view art but also to act as a community hub in which a range of local business events can take place...
PENTIMENTI
ARTSY by Robin Cantwell AMAR GALLERY Editorial Director
From da Vinci to Degas, the pentimento - a visible alteration in a painting that shows the artist’s change of mind during the composition of a work - has been a recurring motif through art history. The term (typically found in its plural, pentimenti) was originally forensic in its meaning, derived...
