b. 1982, Falkirk, Scotland
Mohammed Qasim Ashfaq intertwines aspects of Islamic and modernist art to create refined monochromatic drawings and sculptures. Ashfaq’s abstract geometric patterns explore dichotomies of light and space, opacity and reflection, modernity and tradition, past and future. Works such as his Falling Stars pair contemplate our relation to the natural world; the striking isolation of these foreign bodies, whose earthly collision is rendered in lacquered steel, suggests the literal and metaphorical weight of their journey, and summons imagery of human migrations made on more terrestrial plains.