Radiance and luminosity in the acrylic-laden works of young upcoming artist Rabab Zaidi arrest at once. Bright canvases the Muscat-based artist has painted in her second exhibition ‘Dichotomy in monotony' speak evocatively of today's woman. Women occur and recur in her paintings. Even in her first art exhibition held in 2006, women were central to her art practice. “I was tempted to project the woman in a positive light, she is liberated, she is enjoying this era, she is enjoying her womanhood.”
The painting ‘Light Within Me' illustrates it beautifully. The artist portrays a woman as an enlightened being, as if nurturing what is emanating from inside her. “For emitting light, moon depends on the light of the sun, but the lady in the painting is just like a fire-fly who has its own light and spreads light all around its surrounding,” explains Rabab, who did her MFA in painting from Jamia Millia Islamia.
Rabab has gone on to use different materials in the exhibition like in the work where she uses a well woven mat in which a human figure was cut-out and is then illuminated to convey the idea of enlightenment. “The light is from within and surrounding that a person is being enlightened,” said Rabab.
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There are 13 works in the exhibition and besides woman, some of her works include landscapes as well.
The artist is also a guest faculty at NIFT, Jamia Millia Islamia and South Delhi Polytechnic College and teaches visual arts there.
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