Nalini Malani's TRANSGRESSIONS to Open 2/19 at Asia Society Museum

Galerie Lelong is pleased to announce NALINI MALANI's Transgressions, on view February 19 - August 3, 2014 at Asia Society Museum, New York, NY. View Website.

The exhibition features Transgressions II (2009) a multimedia installation from the Asia Society Museum Collection. This three-channel video integrates the folk sensibility of traditional shadow plays with new technology, creating a mesmerizing projection of colors and imagery.

In Transgressions II, three videos are projected through four transparent Lexan cylinders, which the artist has painted in a manner that references the Kalighat style-practiced in Bengal in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries-which often commented on topical events. As the cylinders rotate, images of a wrathful female deity, boxers, and animals inspired by Edward Said's Orientalism create an ever-shifting tableau on the gallery walls. The imagery is accompanied by a recording of a poem written by the artist.

The exhibition also features a selection of Malani's artist books, which emphasize the importance of drawing and painting to the artist's practice, as well as highlight the techniques and themes she uses in other mediums. For example, Hieroglyphs of Lohar Chawl is a companion work to a series of drawings and paintings that focus on the south central Mumbai neighborhood of Lohar Chawl, where the artist had a studio in the 1980s and 1990s.

The exhibition is curated by Michelle Yun, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Asia Society.

Pictured: Installation view of Transgressions (2001), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2001.