Huma Bhabha

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Huma Bhabha (b. 1962, Karachi, Pakistan) is a sculptor based in New York.

Bhabha studied at the Rhode Island School of Art and Design [1] (BFA, 1985) and Columbia University [2] (MFA, 1989).

Bhabha has been widely exhibited in North America and Europe, and has been included in several important shows including “Greater New York” at PS1 Contemporary Art Center [3] and MOMA [4] in New York, and “USA Today” [5] at The Royal Academy [6] in London.

Humorously implicating modernist 'Primitivism' Huma Bhabha re-examines issues of cultural representation, identity and storytelling. Balancing formalism and figuration, Bhabha’s sculptures are composed from basic construction media and found objects. Her sculptures arrogate traditional values of material purity, while creating an abject system of reference encompassing both art history and present day narratives.

Taking inspiration from the rough-hewn classicism of Giacometti and Picasso, Bhabha uses impoverished aesthetics as a tool of informational remix, mirroring the language of globalism and hybridisation. Appearing to be simultaneously futuristic and archaic, Bhabha’s work draws upon genre of science fiction, creating alternative histories analogous to our own. Themes of isolation, difference and obsolescent utopian ideologies run throughout Bhabha’s sculptures.

Through the physicality of her materials, Bhabha conceives the corporeal as a realm of discomfort. Her figures exist as apprehensive totems: alien, repulsive and barbarian, yet curiously beautiful, they evoke an empathy of shared failure and rejection. Posing questions of cultural authenticity, physical anxiety and spiritual loss, Bhabha construes the empirical as subjective, monumentalising the dysfunctional and inadequate.