• Abdul Abdullah, Chin up face the day, 2024, oil on linen, 162.5 x 137 cm
  • Abdul Abdullah, Difficult paths lead to the best destinations, , 2024, oil on linen, 162.5 x 137 cm
  • Abdul Abdullah, Good company shortens the journey , 2024, oil on linen, 162.5 x 137 cm
  • Abdul Abdullah, Inside you there are two wolves (cats), 2024, oil on linen, 162.5 x 137 cm
  • Abdul Abdullah, Small steps move mountains, , 2024, oil on linen, 162.5 x 137 cm
  • Abdul Abdullah, Standing on the back of giants, 2024, oil on linen, 162.5 x 137 cm
  • Abdul Abdullah, To go far, go together, 2024, oil on linen, 162.5 x 137 cm
  • Abdul Abdullah, A problem is a chance for you to do our best, 2024, oil on linen, 162.5 x 137 cm
  • Abdul Abdullah, I thought it would be simpler, 2024, oil and LED on board (unlit), 142 x 120 cm
EXHIBITION

Abdul Abdullah

Witness

26 October – 23 November 2024

Ames Yavuz is pleased to announce Witness, Abdul Abdullah’s second solo exhibition in Singapore and his sixth with the gallery.

 Renowned for his work that interrogates otherness, displacement and identity, Abdullah’s approach is always shifting as it is compelling, from vivid self-portraits to thought-provoking public installations and anthropomorphised caricatures.

Witness debuts a new series that expands on Abdullah’s two critical explorations: the tensions between perception of a person or group and the realities of their lived experience; and of the boundaries and the physical, geographical, political, and spiritual metamorphoses we undergo as we journey across them.

In these works, Abdullah examines how we transpose simplified archetypal myths onto complex historical personal narratives as we peer into one’s daily, internal battle with their own conflicts and competing values. Throughout his new paintings on linen and with LED, Abdullah debuts a new anthropomorphised motif: a cat sitting upon or walking beside a horse in a fantastical landscape.

Interested in the significance of cats, horses, and other domesticated animals in fiction, Abdullah explores how they have been used to represent and be placeholders for otherwise human characteristics, and in some cases, narrates for an unseen audience. As the artist explains, “I imagined these animals that often live beside us and among us as vessels for our human projections, and also witnesses to what we do. He continues, “I see us as both creatures, where one is the Id, and one is the Super Ego, or one is the voice of doubt or caution, and the other the force of purpose.”