Rajiv Menon Contemporary Presents
Shamir Iqtidar, Lament, 2025 Oil on canvas. 30 x 40 inches
LOOK An exhibition exploring how style, fantasy, and a heightened sense of atmosphere can also reveal profound emotional truths
Exhibition Dates: 23 May – 20 June 2025
Opening Reception: Friday 23 May 2025 | 6 PM – 8 PM
Rajiv Menon Contemporary
1311 N Highland Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Sajeela Siddiq Sid Pattni Bhasa Chakrabarti
Featured Artists:
Ammama Malik Arjuna Gunarathne Asad Ali Qulander
Bhasha Chakrabarti Ekta Aggarwal Irum Rahat
Maithili Chaturvedi Maya Seas Paree Rohera
Sajeela Siddiq Shamir Iqtidar Shrimanti Saha
Sid Pattini Soft Geometry Zeehan Wazed
It's been over 40 years since the rise of Cinéma du Look, a French film movement from the 80's associated with directors like Leo Carax, Luc Besson, and Jean-Jacques Beineix. Focused on spectacle and irreverence, these films were often accused of choosing style over substance. Instead, they revealed the possibility for style to be substance in its own right. Cinema Du Look went on to permeate the culture, influencing visual culture well beyond film. Decades later, Rajiv Menon Contemporary presents LOOK, an exploration of how an aesthetic movement from one time and place can be reimagined in others. The young artists in LOOK explore questions of style, fantasy, and a heightened sense of atmosphere, but also reveal profound emotional truths. These artists speak to the legacy of cinema du look by seeing style and decadence as a vehicle to explore deeper questions of alienation and pleasure.
ABOUT RAJIV MENON CONTEMPORARY
Rajiv Menon Contemporary is a new art gallery program focused on perspectives from emerging regions and their diasporas. With a particular–though not exclusive–focus on artists with origins in South Asia, Rajiv Menon founded the gallery to help bring these dynamic and innovative perspectives to the forefront of culture in Los Angeles. The space aims to help shape the next generation of collectors, empowering new voices to advocate on behalf of artists. From making contemporary art more accessible to new art collectors, to placing emerging artists into major museums and private collections, Rajiv Menon Contemporary aims to start a movement and shift our collective culture from all directions.
PRESS INQUIRIES:
rajivmenoncontemporary@culturalcounsel.com
Ammama Malik
