www.metmuseum.org:
Bhabha's work addresses themes of colonialism, war, displacement, and memories of place. Using found materials and the detritus of everyday life, she creates haunting human figures that hover between abstraction and figuration, monumentality and entropy.
www.davidkordanskygallery.com:
Her hybridized forms, which borrow from ancient and modern cultural sources alike, exude pathos and humor, going straight to the heart of the most pressing issues of our time.
Posing questions about the alien qualities of unfamiliar beings, and the criteria by which lifeforms are considered monsters, Bhabha locates the point where science fiction, horror, modernist form, and archaic expression intersect. The timelessness of her objects is enhanced by her technical mastery and her creative approach to her materials, by which she draws attention to the similarities and differences between natural and manmade substances.
In monumental outdoor projects for public spaces, meanwhile, she uses bronze to stage large-scale meditations on nature, war, and civilization’s ancient past and distant future.
www.saatchigallery.com:
One of the ideals in modernist sculpture was that materials should refute illusionary form: rather than trying to ‘trick’ the viewer into believing that metal or clay might actually be flesh or hair, it was thought that materials should resemble themselves and be material-like. Bhabha draws upon these notions in a contemporary way. Man of No Importance exposes the exact methods of its construction, and the worn and brutal qualities of the materials give the sculpture an aura of ancient ritual and reverence. In Bhabha’s work, however, this ‘hallowedness’ is used to humorous effect as her mythological character, made from bits of scrap, becomes the physical embodiment of impoverishment, temporality, and ideological failure.
www.saatchigallery.com:
Bhabha’s The Orientalist conveys ideas of exoticism, difference, and otherness. Equally primiistic, Bhabha’s figure theatrically poses as an ominous king or deity. Cast in bronze, it sits as an imposing relic from a fictional history, a regal air emanating from its polished geometric armour, molten death mask, and ethereal chicken wire veil. Humanised through exaggerated hands and feet and sympathetic cartoon styling, its powers waver between the comically surreal and portentously intimidating, drawing narrative suggestion from the loaded clichés of late night science fiction and horror movies.
www.yorkshire-sculpture.org:
Working almost entirely in figurative sculpture, Huma Bhabha’s approach is unconventional and cross-cultural, making connections between histories, languages and civilisations.
Huma Bhabha made her first public realm commission in the UK for Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019, which was on display in Wakefield city centre for the duration of the festival. Now the festival has closed, Receiver is on display at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Assembled and carrom everyday materials like Styrofoam packaging, cork, clay and plaster, Bhabha’s work has a timeless quality and her practice is a meditation on new ways of approaching the tactile challenges of sculpture-making. Her work draws on wide-ranging influences that include ancient vocabularies, to Picasso, Giacometti, Daumier and German Neo-Expressionists; and the sci-fi dystopias of Philip K. Dick.
Bhabha has exhibited widely, including the acclaimed “We Come in Peace”, for the Roof Garden Commission at the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York (2018), “Greater New York” at MoMA PS1 New York (2015-16), the 2015 Venice Biennale, the 2012 Paris Triennial; and the 2010 Whitney Biennial.
www.wikipedia.org:
Huma Bhabha (born 1962) is a Pakistani-American sculptor based in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Known for her uniquely grotesque, figurative forms that often appear dissected or dismembered, Bhabha often uses found materials in her sculptures, including styrofoam, cork, rubber, paper, wire, ahe occasionally incorporates objects given to her by other people into her artwork. Many of these sculptures are also cast in bronze. She is equally prolific in her works on paper, creating vivid pastel drawings, eerie photographic collages, and haunting print editions.
Bhabha's work addresses themes of colonialism, war, displacement, and memories of place. Using found materials and the detritus of everyday life, she creates haunting human figures that hover between abstraction and figuration, monumentality and entropy.
www.davidkordanskygallery.com:
Her hybridized forms, which borrow from ancient and modern cultural sources alike, exude pathos and humor, going straight to the heart of the most pressing issues of our time.
Posing questions about the alien qualities of unfamiliar beings, and the criteria by which lifeforms are considered monsters, Bhabha locates the point where science fiction, horror, modernist form, and archaic expression intersect. The timelessness of her objects is enhanced by her technical mastery and her creative approach to her materials, by which she draws attention to the similarities and differences between natural and manmade substances.
In monumental outdoor projects for public spaces, meanwhile, she uses bronze to stage large-scale meditations on nature, war, and civilization’s ancient past and distant future.
www.saatchigallery.com:
One of the ideals in modernist sculpture was that materials should refute illusionary form: rather than trying to ‘trick’ the viewer into believing that metal or clay might actually be flesh or hair, it was thought that materials should resemble themselves and be material-like. Bhabha draws upon these notions in a contemporary way. Man of No Importance exposes the exact methods of its construction, and the worn and brutal qualities of the materials give the sculpture an aura of ancient ritual and reverence. In Bhabha’s work, however, this ‘hallowedness’ is used to humorous effect as her mythological character, made from bits of scrap, becomes the physical embodiment of impoverishment, temporality, and ideological failure.
www.saatchigallery.com:
Bhabha’s The Orientalist conveys ideas of exoticism, difference, and otherness. Equally primiistic, Bhabha’s figure theatrically poses as an ominous king or deity. Cast in bronze, it sits as an imposing relic from a fictional history, a regal air emanating from its polished geometric armour, molten death mask, and ethereal chicken wire veil. Humanised through exaggerated hands and feet and sympathetic cartoon styling, its powers waver between the comically surreal and portentously intimidating, drawing narrative suggestion from the loaded clichés of late night science fiction and horror movies.
www.yorkshire-sculpture.org:
Working almost entirely in figurative sculpture, Huma Bhabha’s approach is unconventional and cross-cultural, making connections between histories, languages and civilisations.
Huma Bhabha made her first public realm commission in the UK for Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019, which was on display in Wakefield city centre for the duration of the festival. Now the festival has closed, Receiver is on display at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Assembled and carrom everyday materials like Styrofoam packaging, cork, clay and plaster, Bhabha’s work has a timeless quality and her practice is a meditation on new ways of approaching the tactile challenges of sculpture-making. Her work draws on wide-ranging influences that include ancient vocabularies, to Picasso, Giacometti, Daumier and German Neo-Expressionists; and the sci-fi dystopias of Philip K. Dick.
Bhabha has exhibited widely, including the acclaimed “We Come in Peace”, for the Roof Garden Commission at the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York (2018), “Greater New York” at MoMA PS1 New York (2015-16), the 2015 Venice Biennale, the 2012 Paris Triennial; and the 2010 Whitney Biennial.
www.wikipedia.org:
Huma Bhabha (born 1962) is a Pakistani-American sculptor based in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Known for her uniquely grotesque, figurative forms that often appear dissected or dismembered, Bhabha often uses found materials in her sculptures, including styrofoam, cork, rubber, paper, wire, ahe occasionally incorporates objects given to her by other people into her artwork. Many of these sculptures are also cast in bronze. She is equally prolific in her works on paper, creating vivid pastel drawings, eerie photographic collages, and haunting print editions.