Postmodern Populism

The creative act of perceiving the ordinary as extraordinary is finding remarkably imaginative expressions amongst the current crop of contemporary artists. Striding many worlds they are embracing change rather than fearing it to break out of narrow home grown agendas.  Contemplating a universal culture they are observing, questioning, and reworking the very process of formulating art to negotiate new relationships with the global and the local, race and nation, the sacred and the secular. Hamra Abbas, an artist who has consistently proved, through her work, that there are infinite ways of seeing, approaching and articulating, regaled audiences with a fresh collection of sensitivities and discernments on the everyday and unremarkable. The Canvas show, Idols, comprising sculptures, prints and video, appears diverse and disparate in content and media, with each genre demanding independent viewership, but all art works stem from the artists personal exploration of populist sentiment.