TABASSUM MALANI

SPACE 1

Exhibition dates : 15 - 27 December 2026
Opening reception : Wed 16 December 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

I paint to make the unseen felt. The things that shape us most, fear, courage and the quiet decision to change, are rarely visible. Through wildlife and botanicals, I explore these inner experiences, finding in nature a language for resilience, vulnerability and transformation.

My abstract realism style brings recognisable forms into conversation with expressive mark-making, layered textures, washes and drips. I begin with intuitive, often unpredictable layers, allowing colour and texture to emerge before building the forms that anchor each painting. The tension between realism and abstraction reflects the nature of transformation itself: what we know, what we leave behind, and what is still becoming.

My animals embody different aspects of this journey. The wolf protects, the horse endures, the stag begins again. Native botanicals emerge and dissolve into expressive layers, reflecting the delicate balance between growth and impermanence.

Trained as a civil engineer, I incorporate pages from my old engineering textbooks into my canvases. These fragments of my former life connect my past with my present, holding traces of the person I was before I chose to leave a stable career and pursue art.

For me, nature is more than a subject to paint. It is a reminder that change is part of being alive, that strength can coexist with vulnerability, and that becoming yourself is an ongoing process.

Through realism, abstraction using oil paints and mixed media, I invite viewers to embrace their true self in the journey of becoming.