XT><LX: Rana Begum, Nabil Rahman and Ayesha Sultana

NCR Manila, Philippines—Bellas Artes Projects is pleased to announce the opening of XT><LX, a group exhibition of new works by Rana Begum, Nabil Rahman, and Ayesha Sultana curated by Diana Campbell Betancourt. During their residencies in Bataan, Begum, Rahman, and Sultana collaborated with the artisans at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar to create abstract expressions of their emotional engagement with the physical landscape of the Philippines, often by experimenting with found industrial and building materials. The title draws inspiration from the idea of reading forms found in architecture and creating new languages for living in the hybridity of the 21st Century.

Blurring the boundaries between sculpture, painting and architecture, Rana Begum’s work ranges from drawings, paintings and wall-based sculptures to large-scale public art projects. Begum is influenced by the geometric abstraction of Minimalism and Constructivism as well as by the use of repetition in Islamic art and architecture, and the way in which light filters through architectural features such as pierced screens to create optical and sensory effects. Seeing beauty in functional materials, Begum often uses objects from daily life and transforms them into something else.

In a similar vein, Nabil Rahman opens up new possibilities for found materials in his work - from cigarette foil, to broken windows, to abandoned furniture - conjuring memories of patterns in the landscape of life and opening up space for cross-cultural dialog through entry points of mutual recognition found in these materials.

Within the context of drawing, Ayesha Sultana’s recent body of work is an investigation into the rudiments of form through architectural constructions, often derivative of the landscape. Counter tendencies of movement and stability are also evident as an attempt to generate emptiness by filling up the surface. Through other elemental gestures and implications of plotting, measuring and erasure, merging and filling in, Sultana makes whole, an otherwise fractured image. 

The opening reception for XT><LX will take place at BAP Outpost at The Alley at Karrivin 2316 Chino Roces Avenue, Makati on Tuesday, November 6th at 7pm.This event is free and open to the public.