November 14 to December 22, 2003

Mala Iqbal is an observant person. A combiner of what is remembered and what is imagined, Mala willfully stylizes, scrambles, exaggerates and distorts. Accuracy of a naturalistic sort is not important to her. These uncanny images are recognizable enough to slide under a viewer's radar. Based on actual and imagined observation, they reach a sense of the unreal. Paying attention to something small makes it seem big and vice versa. There is a certain strangeness that comes from mixing the registers of magnification: highly rendered detail sits next to a vague blur. This visual hierarchy underscores distortions of perception and perspective, the twin filters of both reality and consciousness.

Mala's work used to involve figures: gravity-proof beings who shape-shifted endlessly across fantasylands. Eventually they transformed and evolved themselves out of existence by becoming their surroundings, assuming the form of mountains, sand dunes or lakes. What has remained is the sense that everything is animate. Surfaces writhe with texture, loud colors describe quiet scenes, and light picks out every leaf in a dark garden.

According to Roberta Smith, "Mala Iqbal seems intent on using a separate technique for each element in her hallucinatory landscapes: spray paint, sponging, stippling, trompe l'oeil. This is not an unusual ploy these days, but Ms. Iqbal uses it in a loose unfinicky way, achieving a vibrant density."

Mala Iqbal holds a BA from Columbia and an MFA from RISD. A native of Staten Island, she was the recipient of the Irene C. Fromer Award from the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in 2001, where she had a show titled Super-Natural.