source: jonathanlevinegallery

Known in the street art community for his fluorescent tape interventions, Nihalani combines a bright color palette with geometric abstract shapes, resulting in striking contrasts within the context of the urban landscape. Expanding on his exploration of form and space, the artist continues to build upon this body of work in his studio practice, through works on canvas and wooden panels.

Nihalani’s bold, flat shapes continue to evolve into complex multi-dimensional patterns, often producing intricate optical illusions that challenge the viewer’s relationship with their surrounding environment. The imagery appears to extend or recede from the surface of the picture plane through the artist’s carefully developed variations on color theory and architectural elements with influences of Op art and Mathematical perspectives.

The artist enjoys the interactive effect of his work in the gallery setting as well as on the street. His exhibitions often include site-specific installations created with tape, similar to his public interventions, which complement his paintings and freestanding sculptures. The accessible quality of Nihalani’s imagery connects with a wide audience, much like the adhesive nature of his original medium.

In Nihalani’s words, “I try to create a new visual space within the physical confines of any piece I work on, through the illusion of three-dimensional imagery contained on a two-dimensional plane. When looking at the work—orientation shifts, shapes merge, direction inverts, foreground becomes background and vice versa. In observing the differences in how we process this information, one becomes aware of how subjective perception can be and how we choose to view reality, individually.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Aakash Nihalani was born in 1986 in Queens, New York and is currently based in Brooklyn. In 2008, he received a BFA from Steinhardt School, New York University (NYU). In 2012, he was awarded a residency at the Willem de Kooning studio, located in East Hampton, NY. Nihalani’s colorful geometric-based work spans across sculpture, multimedia, interactive video, street interventions and photography, it has been exhibited internationally and featured in a number of publications including: The New York Times, The Times of India and Vogue India.
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source: facebook

Aakash Nihalani (Born 1986 in Queens, NY, USA)

My street work consists mostly of isometric rectangles and squares. I selectively place these graphics around New York to highlight the unexpected contours and elegant geometry of the city itself.

For however briefly, I am trying to offer people a chance to step into a different New York than they are used to seeing, and in turn, momentarily escape from routine schedules and lives. We all need the opportunity to see the city more playfully, as a world dominated by the interplay of very basic color and shape. I try to create a new space within the existing space of our everyday world for people to enter freely, and unexpectedly ‘disconnect’ from their reality.

I’m not trying to push a certain highbrow logic or philosophy or purposefully communicate through the esoteric medium of art. I work instinctively, trying to follow my gut about the sensation of color and space, and have fun doing it.

People need to understand that how it is isn’t how it has to be. My work is created in reaction to what we readily encounter in our lives, sidewalks and doorways, buildings and bricks. I’m just connecting the dots differently to make my own picture. Others need to see that they can create, too, connecting their own dots in their own places.