Mapping Terrains

Imran Qureshi is a leading figure in having pushed the boundaries of traditional miniature painting into contemporary contexts and influencing a wave of practitioners in the field of neominiature painting. Qureshi's early journeys abroad to Europe and the UK resulted in a series entitled Mapping the Terrain, which includes this playful work, where he interprets and records whimsical meanderings and new encounters within cartographic boundaries. Urban housing, as indicated by dotted forms amongst the landscape of city maps, was later developed by Qureshi into round bush-like forms akin to foliage seen in Kangra painting. The subject of conflicts over identities, territories and ideologies are central to Qureshi's practice and the dissolving frame seen here, is a deliberate break from the traditional confines of miniature painting. The artist has also employed tea stains directly on the wasli paper to suggest subtle terrains and the wider notion of fluidity within landscapes, real or otherwise, where boundaries are unclear. In 2013 Qureshi was commissioned to create a site-specific work at the Roof Garden of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. He was also recognised with the 2013 Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year award which was succeeded by a major solo exhibition at the Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle in spring 2013. Qureshi has recently designed a London Underground Tube map cover for the Art on the Underground's in London and is currently showing at the, Eli and Edyth Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University in East Lansing.