Asif Hoque

Combining the legends and mythos of his birthplace of Rome, Italy, and his Bengali Heritage, Asif Hoque creates colourful, lush imagined worlds. Working with rich bright colours and a connective thread of gold hues, Bengal tigers, and mythological characters across his bodies of work, Hoque’s paintings reimagine the classic art historical Western genre of Mythological and religious painting for the brown body. Awash with glowing gold and crepuscular rays, Hoque overlays the genre’s longstanding concern with light to the radiant, glowing figures and Bangladeshi sacred creatures who are shrouded in halo’s of joy and triumph. Exploring the possibility of multi-cultural imagination and alternative authenticities, Hoque’s work speaks to finding oneself in the ‘in between’ and centring oneself within cultural experience. 

Asif Hoque (b. 1991) received his BFA from Pratt Institute’s Hunter College. His work has been published in magazines and journals such as Juxtapoz and Whitewall and exhibited globally in London, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and Latina, Italy. Hoque’s paintings are housed in the collections of the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida, and Xiao Hui Wang Art Museum in Suzhou, China. He lives and works in New York.