LUBNA AGHA
Like that of many contemporary artists, Lubna Agha’s artwork is highly reflective of her personal journey. Born in Pakistan and currently living in Boston, Lubna creates work that reflects both her roots and her current circumstances. She freely borrows imagery from traditional Islamic art, but repositions iconographically powerful form in compositions that meld historically Middle Eastern techniques with a grasp of color and composition that belies a deep appreciation of Latin-based modernisms and early twentieth century Dutch abstraction.

Agha takes as a template ancient Islamic architectural features, but then allows her years of travel and self-education take the reins. She has lived throughout the Middle East, Europe and the United States, absorbing the artistic and cultural heritages that infuse her work. The result is a unique style that defies easy categorization. Certainly Agha’s work has a strong visual basis in Arabic art. Yet her work crackles with multi-culturalism. Hints of one-dimensional North African symbolism and intricate Asiatic design sparkle. Lubna Agha weaves a visual yarn, creating a language born of her past and present, telling of cultures near and far.         

“Points of Reference” will be Lubna Agha’s first exhibition in Washington, DC. Her artwork has been exhibited extensively throughout the world. Highlights include exhibitions at: The American Center (Karachi, Pakistan), the Indus Gallery (Karachi, Pakistan), Asia House (London, England), UNESCO (Paris, France), the Rotterdam City Gallery & Museum (Rotterdam, Netherlands), City Gallery (Kobe, Japan), the Pacific Asia Museum (Pasadena, California) and Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts).

CARROLL SOCKWELL
“A Master”,“The Artist Who Should Be Famous”. Those where the headlines in 1992, just before the opening of Carroll Sockwell’s retrospective exhibition at the Washington Project for the Arts. Who was Carroll Sockwell? Was he a “master” or was he, as judged by critic Eric Gibson, “not… an artist of major stature.” We will never know what might have been- Sockwell leaped to his death from the Duke Ellington bridge during the WPA exhibition. Because he lived such a tenuous existence, nearly homeless but exquisitely talented, Sockwell’s body of work (which has been the subject of considerable controversy) remains the barometer by which he will be judged and remembered.

Sockwell’s work as is angry as it is enigmatic. His mark-making echoes that of the Spanish master Tapies, but there is a force present in his images that conveys a frustrated rage bubbling just beneath the papery, delicate surface. His style was sometimes wistful, sometimes playful, but always imbued with that distinctive fury. Charcoal lines are not clean, but smeared and blurred. Color enters the picture like a mournful after-thought; jagged black lines are the dominant presence in most of his images. His dark images are almost a window into his soul, almost, but they hold back – just as he did.

Certainly Carroll Sockwell’s life was not charmed. He grew up in a military family in segregated Washington and ran afoul of the law at an early age. It seemed that his artistic talent would be his salvation. In 1960, he ventured up to New York, immersing himself in a dynamic art scene shaped by Pop, Minimalism and Conceptualism. Upon his return to Washington in 1963, he followed the Washington Color School, though it is apparent from his work that minimalism held a greater sway over him. After solo shows at the Corcoran Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art, it seemed as though Carroll Sockwell was on his way. Yet that is where the story comes to a strange pause. Sockwell did not achieve iconic status. Rather, he fell into a sad, shadowy lifestyle that ended abruptly in 1992, in the midst of what appeared to be a mid-career renaissance. There are glimpses of brilliance in his compositions, poignant reminders of what was and could have been.