Asif Hoque is myth-finder and myth-maker. His paintings are a combination of fantasy, folklore and family heritage. There are warriors, fire, animals, beasts, fabled lands and something rather cinematic to his paintings. They feel both of another century and something a CGI artist would try and conjure up. The works are brilliant in that way, and with Golden Boy, on view now at Half Gallery in NYC, he has imagined the "spirit of the Desert Transcendentalists and a chance meeting with Peter Paul Ruebens," so perfectly summed up by the gallery.
"In a very literal sense my relationship to gold is embedded in this series,” explains the artist. “As a baby, my parents gifted me a golden pendant almost like a small Den Mohor or symbol of security. Except in Islam to wear such luxury as a grown man can seen as a type of ostentation. When and how does that signifier get flipped?” This is show of tradition and absolute new light, a new sense of being in a place that is unfamiliar but beginning to take shape. It's bold and beautiful. —Evan Pricco
