Aicon Gallery is proud to present Habits of Being, our first solo exhibition by renowned artist, Anwar Saeed.  The artist paints nocturnal scenes where mostly always male figures, alone, in pairs or in larger groups, seem involved in private acts, rituals and configurations. Some are clothed, some partially clothed - but it is not clear which state is more revealing. It is seemingly always twilight and the figures stand in a foreshortened foreground, sometimes on what almost appears to be a very narrow stage. The backgrounds are straightforward, although often there is a motif that seems to be symbolic -  a tower, a fish, the moon.
 
In this new series Saeed investigates the ongoing internal conflict between self and other, with no resolution offered, as a way of life, a "habit of being" as be puts it.   He has consistently used doubled figures in his work since his first group show in 1978. However his earlier works are often seen as having more of a political content, and he has spoken of how the context of military rule in 1980s Pakistan could hardly be avoided as an artist, whereas these later paintings work on a less straightforwardly defined plane - of course, they can be read with reference  to gendered and sexualized identities, but that would ignore the element of play, of a particular form of theatre that is present.
 
Anwar Saeed was born in 1955 in Lahore. He has exhibited widely, most recently in 'Hanging Fire' at the Asia Society, New York but also as the National Art Gallery Islamabad; the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, the curated Pakistan pavilion at Art Dubai, The Harris Art Gallery and Canvas Gallery.