Barbican Centre Launches 'Encounters' Series with Huma Bhabha and Alberto Giacometti Exhibition

The Barbican Art Gallery in London opened its new 'Encounters' exhibition series with 'Nothing is Behind Us,' pairing Swiss modernist Alberto Giacometti with Pakistani American artist Huma Bhabha from May 8 to August 10, 2025. Curated by Shanay Jhaveri of the Barbican and Émilie Bouvard of the Fondation Giacometti with support from Delhi's Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, the show explores shared existential concerns through sculpture. Giacometti's postwar works like Walking Man I (1960) and Standing Woman (1957) reflect trauma and endurance with elongated, attenuated figures. Bhabha's contemporary pieces from the 2000s onward, such as Lodger (2024) made of patinating cast iron and Mask of Dimitrios (2019) constructed from found objects, evoke ancient totems and post-apocalyptic ruin. Both artists use the human body as a site of inquiry, with Giacometti's austere bronze and plaster forms contrasting Bhabha's visceral textures and industrial colors. The exhibition includes Giacometti's Four Women on a Base (1950) and Composition with Three Figures and a Head (1950), alongside Bhabha's smaller clay and wire sculptures. The subtitle references a line by Arab American writer Etel Adnan, emphasizing a gaze that looks backward and forward. This inaugural chapter sets a high standard for the series, presenting sculpture as a dialogue between body and world without forcing harmony.