January 6 - February 1, 2024
From Archway Gallery:
“Archway Gallery presents Inward Journey, featuring new paintings by Mohammad Ali Bhatti. The exhibit will be on view January 6 through February 1, 2024. The artist will be present at the gallery to visit with guests at the opening reception on Saturday, January 6, from 5 – 8 p.m., and will talk about his work at 6:30 p.m.
Mohammad Ali Bhatti’s work is expressive, energetic, and bold. This exhibition features abstract paintings, which were created over the period of one year in 2023. Bhatti begins a painting with a random mark making ambiguous shapes to create a kind of rough structure. This process continues until connections between the smaller and larger shapes are made. Bhatti refers to this intuitive process as the “inward journey” of creativity. “I allow myself to play with layers of color and bold brush strokes, creating textures, unstructured shapes, and ambiguously suggested numbers and letters,” Bhatti explains. “The process results in the appearance and disappearance of elements floating in neutral space and generates a sense of movement and energy. Bhatti invites the viewer to participate in this complex visual world aesthetically, emotionally, and intellectually.
Bhatti’s ultimate artistic goal is to offer the viewer something interesting – something visually complex that captures the attention and invites the viewer to take his/her own inward journey. “I strive for an aesthetic that encourages open-mindedness while harnessing positive energy and the power of imagination,” he says.
Dr. Mohammad Ali Bhatti is a well-known contemporary expressionist painter. He concentrates on themes such as mysticism and socio-political issues. Born and raised in Pakistan, Bhatti attended local art institutions in his youth, and subsequently traveled to the United States where he earned an MFA from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Arts from Ohio University, Athens. For the last 35 years, he has painted and exhibited around the world, including 35 solo exhibitions.
The synthesis of his aesthetic sensibility and technical versatility allows him to explore the interplay of exotic forms and shapes with freedom. His distinctive style, conceptual subjects, and spontaneity are instantly recognizable to collectors in the United States, as well as abroad, who value and prize his work. The visual interest in his paintings is heightened by multiple layers of acrylic, oil, resins, spray paint, randomly torn magazine and book pages, design patterns, and calligraphic elements which help him to create rich imagery. He utilizes intense and vibrant colors applied with bold brush strokes that enable him to generate enormous energy and excitement on canvases.
Bhatti lives in Houston, Texas and is associated with the artist-owned Archway Gallery in Houston and the Watercolor Art Society of Houston. He also teaches a variety of art classes, using a combination of demonstration with hands-on instruction, and has a large committed following of students. Visit his website: www.artistbhatti.com”
Reception: January 6, 2024 | 5–8 pm
2305-A Dunlavy
Houston, 77006 TX
(713) 522-2409
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