Fareen Butt
Fareen Butt's work is a fusion of eastern and western methodologies that are reflective in her painting process where she combines Southeastern Asian methods and classical European fine art. Butt harmoniously synthesizes the Nihonga technique, which fundamentally requires the use of natural elements such as shells and semi-precious and precious stones to create the color pigment of the paint with Pointillism, a method made famous by Seurat in the 1800s and more recently by Pousette Dart. What results is a more elusive and complex color and texture. Her hybrid technique also lends itself to that of the meditative. The time and discipline it takes to cover vast amounts of surface in such a feverous, controlled style.
The Mirage Bamboo series are based on photographs taken from natural forest landscapes of China. Inspired by such exquisite sights, the stones that adorn the work are ruby, diamond, coral many of the stones coming from geologists in Kashmir (A holy place in the middle east known for its heavenly beauty) The paintings meditate on a sort of spiritual enlightenment that is experienced within the serene abstract landscapes that emerge from the work the further away you stand. Upon closer view, you begin to see the many different “points” of color that make up the different areas of color fields. Butt sees the landscapes as visions of “places rendered sacred by the indigenes around the world.” Expressed through these “moving” points of color she explains the works “pursues the vital energy embodied, ebbing, in these spaces. It is a representation of the movement in the mass, in its entirety.”
Fareen Butt is a Pakistani American painter who lives and works in New York. She spent her childhood in California and South Africa, and has also lived in Mexico, Cameroon, Canada, and Pakistan. She has studied and traveled extensively around the world, exhibiting in Dubai, Pakistan, New York, Egypt and Europe. Next year she has exhibitions scheduled in Canada, Paris, Germany, New York, Dubai, Bangladesh and India.
