Sadia Fakih
In May of 2022 Paradice Palase participated in the 2nd edition of Future Fair presenting new and recent work by members Sadia Fakih and Jay Gaskill. Included are paintings, mixed media on panel, and works on yupo from the pair, their individual practices meeting through mark-making, pattern, and symbolism. Their works are still for sale through the end of July.
Taming the Lion (and her demons), 2021
Interview with: SADIA FAKIH
As a part of our interview series, we will be talking to Sadia Fakih about her participation in the Future Fair: what she loved, what she didn’t, and what she is working on next.
Fakih is an artist based in Calgary, Alberta, CA. Her work explores cultural hybridity, displacement, intersectionality, and the Surreal. Through her collage-drawings, she expresses her place (or displacement) as a South-Asian feminine in the West. She explores the in-between and transitional spaces that erupt when imposing identities collide. Informed by post-colonial theory, hybrid figures occupy these ambivalent, third spaces in her work while also entering the realm of the Surreal. Fakih’s parents immigrated to Canada from Karachi, Pakistan in the mid 1970s - she was born in Nova Scotia and grew up in Ontario. She received a BFA in Painting with distinction from Alberta University of the Arts, and completed her MFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2019. Fakih’s work has been included in exhibitions at Tiger Strikes Asteroid in NYC, the SVA Flat Iron Gallery, and Nuit Blanche in Toronto. In 2021, she was an Artist-in-Residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Her group exhibition work has been featured in publications including Artnet News and Hyperallergic. Fakih is represented by VivianeArt in Canada.
PP: Have you been involved in an art fair before? Which one(s) and did you show work?
SF: This was my first time showing at an art fair! And it was an amazing experience -- I'm very glad I was able to fly out to NYC to attend as well since I hadn't left Canada since lockdown. I was last in NYC in 2019 when I graduated from SVA. Thank you so much to Kat and Lauren for the opportunity!
PP: What would you keep the same and what would you do differently in participating in an art fair?
SF: I definitely wouldn't change the impromptu trip to NYC to attend the fair and see the city and people again. I loved that the VIP preview day was packed, but i also would have loved to take more space and see the amazing work that was there - which i had a little bit of time to do later in the week. It definitely felt like a whirlwind.
PP: What projects are you currently working on after participating in the Future Fair?
SF: Right now I'm actually getting more work ready for another art fair I'll be participating in with VivianeArt here in Canada. I joined with the Calgary-based art gallery earlier this year, and Viviane will be bringing my work to Art Toronto in October. Very excited about that as well!
Hand of Fatima Holding the Moon, 2021