Written by: Nayha Jehangir Khan
Posted on: March 15, 2022 | 
| 中文
(L to R) An Emotional Frenzy and Stream of Consciousness
Amna Rehman’s paintings reveal a series of protagonists that share a physical and psychological space on her canvases. As we enter the gallery space of O Art Space, the first painting we encounter is “Dreamscape II” which has two menacing vultures bathed in blue light looking away from the viewer. The artist chooses to deliberately position her subjects looking back at the viewer, holding a steady gaze that feels confrontational and on closer reading indifferent. The paintings are a collection of deep reflections on the presence of each sitter. Amna captures nuanced expressions of the women represented in her paintings, and carefully details the skin with colour, light and form.
Dreamscape II
The weighted facial features have sculptural strokes of paint that define their pressed lips, structured eyebrows, and deep-set eyes. In the painting “Internal Monologue” there are two women in the frame, one is in shadow set in the foreground looking away, while the other in the distance captures the attention of the viewer as she is in focus with green hair and a purple top. The same model is seen seated in “Narrative of the Mind” in a larger life-size canvas, and even though the figure’s body language can be read as relaxed, her expression reads as preoccupied. She appears distant and perhaps haunted by her own thoughts, represented here as a partial ghostly figure appearing behind her on the brick wall. Her perspective of figurative paintings has confidence where she chooses to elongate the limbs, giving emotional expression to hands and feet by placing them in resting positions or in a strong grip. The body of her subject is comforted by bent elbows or folded hands that frame the outline of the body. The gaze holds the attention of the viewer as seen in the diptych “The Sun Plays Over Us”, that reads like an invitation for the viewer to connect with the subject.
Narrative of the Mind, Internal Monologue, and The Sun Plays Over Us I
The chemistry between the pairing of two figures is a recurring figurative formation that can be seen in the paintings: “An Emotional Frenzy”, “An Escape for the Time Being”, “Transcending the Boundary of Time” and “Stream of Consciousness”. Each painting is relaying something different and complex. The viewer is invited to witness an intimate moment taking place in “An Emotional Frenzy”, where the taller female figure towers over the other, the conversation is charged with a muted excitement as we notice their feet. The choice to repeat a particular purple coloured paint in multiple paintings dressed as clothing or hair, begins to create a parallel narrative that the artist intends to be more psychological. In the painting “Dreamscape I”, there is a jellyfish paired with a larger blurry echo floating in a haze of the exact same purple hues, revealing a cerebral connection binding the series together.
An Escape for the Time Being
There is a presence of Amna in all her paintings that she is witnessing, reflecting, capturing, remembering, and imagining as part of her process. The rendering of the skin is emotive with a range of blended to smooth and luminescent strokes, along with stylised shorthanded tighter layers of paint that are immediate and gestural. These modern-day tableaux compositions group figures that are each telling their own story, hold their own separate presence in the frame. This can be seen in the painting “An Idyllic Stimulation”, pictured on a sunny beachside with four figures who each seem to be together at first, but on closer examination can be read as individualised studies by the artist. Amna delivers realism through her anatomical studies of figures, detailing the hands, feet, and skin tones with layered brushwork. Each portrait has a different expression, and the intensity of the sunlight feels bright, casting heavy shadows on the sand. Amna captures the pause that happens between a conversation, the moment between play and stillness or the contrast between light and shadow, anchors her figures.
An Idyllic Stimulation
The artist deeply resonates with her painting subjects, accessing her own sense of self and exploration of identity through her relationships and personal life experiences. Her paintings offer a glimpse into the vibrant community living in the reality of the artist. “Stream of Consciousness” has three young females who are assertive and in charge of their space on the top half of the painting, while the lower half cuts into a nightmarish reality with the return of the two vultures paired next to a two-headed portrait. Amna understands the burden of the inner voice that resides in each of her subjects. She is able to share the transition between rest and anxiety being experienced by her subjects.
Stream of Consciousness
Amna’s several protagonists reflect the nature of her painting practice that is unafraid to share the authentic truth of the self. With each painting, we witness the artist contemplate and deepen her own understanding, and move further along in her self-discovery.
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