Imran Qureshi's Blood-Red Miniatures at Barbican Curve Gallery

Imran Qureshi created a site-specific installation for London's Barbican Curve gallery featuring 35 miniature landscape paintings. The works depict dark red vines resembling veins and blood spatters, referencing bomb blast carnage in his native Lahore. Gold leaf elements reflect light from spotlights in the darkened gallery space. Some trees appear snapped or uprooted, while the earth shows gashes and ruptures. White peony-like blooms suggest rebirth emerging from red rivulets. The exhibition was accompanied by a publication with reproductions and texts by curator Eleanor Nairne and author Mohsin Hamid. Hamid's contribution consists of 35 numbered paragraphs mirroring the paintings, describing Qureshi's artistic journey from childhood. The installation transforms botanical imagery into anatomical references of violence and regeneration. The project was documented in ArtReview Asia's Summer 2016 issue.