1x1 and Empty 10 are proud to present a show of two young artists from the UAE and India.

“Since we started this collaboration between the two galleries we have been trying to create a dialogue between artists from Dubai and different regions. I believe art should move beyond geographical boundaries and my association with Empty10 has helped me persue this direction. We felt there was a great connection between the works of these two promising young artists and felt it would create an interesting exchange” – Malini Gulrajani

Shaikha Al Mazrou (b.1988, UAE) received a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts at the College of Fine Arts and Design, University of Sharjah, May 2010.

Her work investigates the use of mass-produced electronic waste as appropriated ready-mades for the creation of artworks that deal with colour, form and interaction.  The conceptual development and the assemblage method of these artworks pose diverse questions on formal aspects such as material, form, repetition and geometric structure. It is a process that, inevitably, sets off an unquestionable challenge to the ideologies of industrial mass production through its handmade qualities. The large-scale installations are metaphors for the urban development schemes, a personal revisiting of the works of Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Donald Judd and Carl Andre that anchors the formal qualities of the work in an art historical background.

Mazrou's current work explores the phenomenon of synchromism, the correspondence of colour and music. Her use of obsolete found objects is not only testing our intellect and our tolerance of what a gallery space can bring to the attention of its public, but is also an exploration of colour harmony in relation to musical harmony.

Her layered relief and illusional sculptures challenge the viewers conception of space. Mazrou intents for the viewer to have an instinctive and physical response to the structure, colour and surrounding space of the work. 

Biju Joze (b.1972, Bangalore) received his BFA from College of Fine Art, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore, in 1996, and a MFA from MSU Baroda in 1999. He also studied in University of Ideas, Cittadellarte Foundazione Pistoletto, Biella in 2000.

“In the fifteen years that he has been exhibiting his art, Joze has projected in his works a clear and emphasized understanding of his individual socio-cultural history as well as the imprint of a globalised contemporary on his environment. He trained as a sculptor and moved onto an art practice that involved multimedia installation, intuitively combining concept and material to complement and extend each other. The unusual use of organic and temporary materials in combination with synthetic and industrial ones provides the basis for the objects that he creates; these are often a visual condensation of a larger narrative or myth. He moves between an activist mode and an observer/commentator status to define specific situations, allowing the (art) object to generate larger meanings and enter into a collective sphere of memory and understanding. He ensures this widened communication through formal devices like manipulation of scale, and mutation of form and function. He has the ability to twist the mundane to produce new and challenging fictions, often with an element of satire”.