Art SG

Nahmad Projects is pleased to participate to Art Singapore 2024 with a selection of works by Raghav Babbar and Ksenia Pasyura.

Raghav Babbar (b. 1997) offers a captivating glimpse into the most profound qualities of contemporary portraiture. The Indian-born Babbar aims to visually elucidate the intricacies of the human condition, capturing the distinct psyche and intensity of those he chooses to paint. He distinctly narrows on sharp details while stepping back until individual forms meld seamlessly into broader patterns. The artist imbues his sitters with a unique tangible magic, influenced by the spirituality of his travels across the northern states of India. The current selection takes us on a compelling journey through colour and symbolism, narrating the intimate story of the artist’s entourage.

Babbar’s figures exist outside a specific time or place, serving as touchstones for personal reflections and individual ideas. Through his private studies of friends and family, the artist’s historicising impulses become instantly apparent, as his sitters appear to be both highly contemporary and yet seem to emerge from deep memories of India. The familiar domestic settings give way to glimpses into the artist’s sleepless nights at the studio – a place that becomes both stage and a subject in its own right – as the approximated features of his backgrounds are complemented by the expertly rendered flesh of his works.

Returning to Singapore for the first time since the end of his tenure at Lasalle College of Art and a group exhibition at The Institute of Contemporary Art in 2017, the current selection invites viewers to trace the continuous thread of the artist’s prodigious development. It charts how Babbar’s painting unfolded within his dynamic practice, where contrasting palettes of warm and cold colours converge, creating new powerful qualities and revealing each sitter’s most private and unspoken tales. Here, the parabolic tale is defined by simplicity and privacy, focusing on what’s left unspoken and resulting in portraits that balance sensuality and restraint.