Catalogue / Shakibul Islam
Shakibul Islam
Waiting
A clock on the table, a bare body at the door
White petals bend toward the cloth, tired of standing.
The gold clock leans on the stripes and counts the hours.
Smoke curls inside the cage where a bird should be.
Across the dark room a door spills orange light.
A bare back faces it. The cat looks up and waits too.
On the table a green leaf lies still, holding its breath.
The work
Waiting is a large oil painting from 2023 by Shakibul Islam. A table holds white flowers, a gold clock, a birdcage and an orange book with a Bengali title. Behind it, in a warm doorway, a nude figure stands with its back to us. A cat looks up at the figure. Islam grew up in Kolkata. There he saw queer bodies celebrated in ritual and mocked in daily life. In his paintings the nude is not a spectacle. It shows the body as a place of desire and choice.
- Theme
- Waiting to be seen
- Material
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 121.92 × 152.4 cm
- Year
- 2023
- Edition
- 1
- Framed
- Yes
- About the artist
- Sir J. J. School of Art, Architecture and Design, Mumbai
- From
- Mumbai
- Code
- RC-652
- @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
