Nasser Azam

Azam preparing his canvases on an ice desert in Antarctica.

Nasser Azam (born 1963, Jhelum, Pakistan) is a British contemporary artist, living and working in London.

Biography

Nasser Azam was born in Jhelum, Pakistan in 1963, and moved to London with his parents in 1970. He began painting seriously in 1980, and in the same year embarked on a business degree at the University of Birmingham. By 1983, his reputation as an artist of considerable talent had been established through a number of exhibitions in Birmingham and the West Midlands, including the The Barber Institute of Fine Arts. That year he also featured in a BBC documentary.

The Dance, February 2008

In 2007, after an extended period living and traveling in Japan, America and Europe, Azam became Artist-in-Residence at the County Hall Gallery, mounting a major exhibition of early and recent work. Subsequent exhibitions included the 'Anatomica' series of paintings, made from illustrations taken both from fashion magazines and medical textbooks. Sculptural work has notably included the large bronze sculpture The Dance, unveiled on the South Bank on 21 February 2008. Recent sculptural projects have included work for the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland, in Dublin.

Azam's expressive semi-abstract style of painting has been compared with that of Willem de Kooning. His paintings show the human figure encoded in bio-morphic forms and gestural marks, and typically use a restricted but intense palette. The semi-natural, perforated appearance of his sculpture has given rise to comparisons with the work of twentieth-century sculptors such as Archipenko, Hans Arp and Henry Moore.

Azam is also active as an entrepreneur in the art world. In 2009 he launched The Azam Collection, an investment fund for contemporary art, to invest in, mentor and exhibit the work of younger artists. In 2010 Azam purchased the Morris Singer Art Foundry, the oldest bronze foundry in the United Kingdom, and relaunched it as the Zahra Modern Art Foundry.

'Performance Painting' Project 2008-10

Many of Azam's works during the period 2008 to 2010 were made as part of the 'performance painting' project. His purpose was to find the most extreme conditions in which to make paintings, and to use a work of art to document the moment and location in which it was made. In July 2008 Azam embarked on Life In Space, the first major painting 'performance'. Aboard a specially modified ILYUSHIN 76 MDK parabolic aircraft, Azam experienced totally weightless conditions similar to those in space while he completed two new triptychs, Homage to Francis Bacon: Triptych I and Homage to Francis Bacon: Triptych II.

Azam working on his 'Homage to Francis Bacon' triptychs in zero gravity, July 2008

Azam's 'Life in Space' series of paintings was exhibited in London in Spring 2009.

In February 2010 Azam conducted an artistic expedition to Antarctica, where he endured extreme weather conditions to produce 13 large abstract oil paintings responding to different Antarctic landscapes, including ice lakes, ice caves, glaciers and ice deserts. Azam prepared for the Antarctica trip with a series of artistic trials in the freezers at Billingsgate Fish Market. The expedition was accompanied by a cameraman to document the mission.

On his return Azam continued elaborating the motifs discovered in Antarctica, in particular with a series of works on paper using maps of the Antarctic continent.

Sculpture

• On 10 February 2010 Azam's monumental sculpture, The Dance was moved from the County Hall Gallery to London's most prestigious new hotel, Park Plaza Westminster Bridge.
• Azam's monumental bronze sculpture Sepian Blue was exhibited at Sculpture in Context, Ireland's largest exhibition of public sculpture held at the Botanic Gardens outside Dublin, and is now part of the Botanical Garden's permanent collection and displayed at the entrance to the gardens.
• As part of the nationwide Big Dance 2008 event the County Hall Gallery hosted an outdoor dance event on Sunday 6 July 2008. 'Sculpture in Motion' was a physical response to Azam's sculpture 'The Dance' on the South Bank.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

• Azam: Antarctica - London Underground & Tokyo Subway,11th to 25th April 2011
• Colour over Form, County Hall Gallery, London, 5 June to 27 September 2009
• Life in Space, County Hall Gallery, London, 16 January to 29 April 2009.
• Azam Painting and Sculpture, Istanbul, Contemporary Art Fair, October 2008.
• Paintings and Bronzes, County Hall Gallery, London, August to September 2008
• Anatomica, County Hall Gallery, London, Summer 2008.
• Azam Retrospective, County Hall Gallery, London, Autumn 2007.
• Recent Works, The University of Aston, West Midlands, UK, 1983.
• The View, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, UK, 1983.
• "Summer and Winter Exhibitions" Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, 1983
• Nasser Azam, University of Birmingham, UK, 1982.

Works in Auction

• Somatic Fields: Peripheral Peripheral I, 2007, sold for 58,850 GBP at Christies, 1 July 2010.
• Homage to Francis Bacon: Triptych I sold for 332,500 USD at Philips de Pury Contemporary Art auction in New York on 14 November 2009.
• Intricate Requiem I sold for 80,000 Euros on 10 October 2009 in The Sovereign European Art Prize auction at Somerset House, London.

Public Appearances

• In October 2009 Azam participated in the debate 'Art: what's it good for?' chaired by Michael Portillo and part of the LCACE Inside Out Festival.
• In September 2009 Azam participated in Liliane Lijn's contemporary art performance piece Power Game at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.

Bibliography

John-Paul Stonard (2008-03-20). Azam: A Short History of Sensation, Volume I.  Follow this link to purchase on Amazon [1]

The Independent on Sunday, Arts Review, Close-Up Nasser Azam, 4 January 2009

Philanthropy

Nasser Azam is a patron of the British branch of Child In Need India (CINI UK)^[1].

References

1. ^ http://www.cini.org.uk/about.html

External links

• Official website
• County Hall Gallery
• Artnet site
• Purchase Azam: A Short History of Sensation, Volume I on Amazon.
• BBC article and video of the Zero Gravity project
• Guardian video footage of Nasser Azam in zero gravity
• You Tube

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Name	Azam, Nasser
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Date of birth	1963
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