GÉRARD QUENUM
Effortlessly balancing traditional eastern metaphysical insights about the nature of reality with visual realisations that are in accord with the latest formulations of contemporary western science, Govinda Sah ‘Azad’ imagines a cosmos of boundless possibilities. From an early age, he was interested in drawing and sculpture. He left Nepal to live in India and from 1991-94, worked as a signboard and wall painter in Delhi. In 1995, he returned to Kathmandu and joined the Fine Art College to realise his dream of becoming a painter. During his studies, he participated in several group exhibitions, which resulted in a first solo exhibition in 1999. Professor and Campus Chief of the Fine Art College and prominent artist, Govinda Dongol, dubbed Govinda Sah, ‘Lion Heart’.
He joined the MA Fine Art course in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2006, but soon thereafter acquired sponsorship and moved to London to study. Govinda obtained a MA in Fine Art from Wimbledon College of Art in 2008.
His first solo exhibition, Transcriptions, was held at October Gallery in 2011. In 2012, his work was included in the Summer Exhibition Royal Academy of Arts, London. In 2013, October Gallery held his second solo show Lightness of Being and Tibet House, New York, USA presented the solo exhibition, The Universe Within. Boundless Possibilities (2016) was his third individual exhibition at October Gallery. Govinda Sah’s works can be found in public and private collections worldwide including major collections such as the Royal Collection, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Gerard Quenum’s work is instantly recognisable owing to his signature use of discarded dolls’ parts and found objects, which create witty yet haunting ‘portraits’. Quenum uses aged dolls which he reconfigures into evocative assemblages. The sculptor’s ability lies in his storytelling, engaging the imaginative faculties by transporting the viewer into an alternate reality transcending time and space. The wooden objects he chooses - mortars, ritual drums or pilings that once supported entire houses in the marshy lagoons surrounding Porto-Novo, also have unique histories. The woods are impregnated with inherited stories, their roughened surfaces speaking about the lives of many, concealing alternate worlds and other experiences entirely. Through his sculptures, Quenum fulfils his main task to ‘act as a messenger’.
Quenum had his first solo exhibition at October Gallery, Clandestins - Stowaways, in 2009 followed by other international exhibitions which include Gerard Quenum: Rupture at the Fondation Zinsou in Cotonou, Benin in 2013 and O dragao entre dois mundos (The Dragon Between Two Worlds) at Museu Afro Brasil in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2010. His works can be found in esteemed collections such as the British Museum, London, UK, and the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, Stanford, USA.