Some ribs are always soft

McLeavey Gallery is thrilled to present, Some ribs are always soft, an exhibition of new works by Areez Katki. Some ribs are always soft is Areez’s second solo exhibition with McLeavey Gallery and his only exhibition in 2023. 

Described by Kim Hill, when interviewed by her in 2022, as a ‘something of a rising star in the New Zealand contemporary art scene’, Areez is a multidisciplinary artist and writer. His practice explores genetic and cultural origins through embroidery, tapestry, weaving, beading, painting, printmaking, sculpture and poetry.

Since his inaugural exhibition with McLeavey Gallery, All my books have faded spines, in March of 2022, Areez has exhibited both internationally and throughout New Zealand. His 2022 New Zealand exhibitions included There Is No Other Home But This (with Khadim Ali) at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth. Already in 2023 Areez has had his work acquired by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, completed his time as the Tylee Cottage artist-in-residence as the craft/object-based practitioner and most recently has been working on a project which is bound for Venice. 

In Some ribs are always soft Areez presents a number of his finely detailed, gestural textile works he is best known for alongside a series of 11 works on paper. The series of work on paper are explored in an essay by Tendai Mutambu: 

'For a series of new works in his exhibition, titled Some ribs are always soft, Areez Katki visually interprets Ahad 'asher kaukaban (Eleven Planets) by Mahmoud Darwish, working from the original Arabic (composed in 1992), and Agha Shahid Ali’s 1994 English translation, Eleven Stars Over Andalusia. The resulting images speak to his own autoethnography hewn from his Zoroastrian and Parsi ancestries, in conversation with the two exiled poets, Darwish and Shahid Ali: one Palestinian and the other, his translator, an Indian-Afghani.'

Please contact the gallery for a complete copy of the essay by Tendai Mutambu.