Catalogue / Shakibul Islam
Shakibul Islam
Foliage
A wire fence, nearly swallowed by leaves that refuse to match
Green on green on green. Still no two leaves agree.
A fern opens its fingers over a wire fence.
Heart-shaped leaves climb the trunk without asking.
Pink flowers turn their faces up through the dark middle.
The sky comes in only in small pale pieces.
What was built to keep things out is slowly being held.
The work
Shakibul Islam makes this watercolour in 2021. Fern fronds, climbing plants and pink five-petalled flowers fill the whole sheet. Behind them a wire fence and tree trunks show through. Small pieces of pale sky appear between the leaves. Islam gives each leaf its own edge, vein and shine. There is no single centre. His name and the year sit in the lower right corner. Today he works mostly in oil, acrylic and gouache. Nature stays close to his work. He says nature has never discriminated in what it creates.
- Theme
- Wild green growth
- Material
- Watercolour on paper
- Size
- 27.94 × 38.1 cm
- Year
- 2021
- Edition
- 1
- Framed
- No
- About the artist
- Sir J. J. School of Art, Architecture and Design, Mumbai
- From
- Mumbai
- Code
- RC-656
- @realshakibulislam
In the artist’s words
My practice operates at the intersection of identity formation, corporeality, and sociocultural regulation, with a sustained focus on queerness as both lived experience and critical framework. I grew up within patriarchal and homophobic environments, where I observed how queer bodies are celebrated in ritual yet ridiculed in daily life. These early experiences of bullying, exclusion, and performative inclusion continue to inform my work. My first painting on LGBTQIA+ identity was made during my BFA, responding to a mythological assignment through the story of Swami Ayyappa and queer adoption rights in the Indian Constitution. Since then, my work has expanded to address personal experience, rights, intimacy, and the social position of…
Meet the artist
