M+B is pleased to present f o r e p l a y, an exhibition of new work by Los Angeles-based artist Nevine Mahmoud. This is the artist’s debut solo exhibition. The show runs from November 11, 2017 to January 6, 2018, with an opening reception on Saturday, November 11 from 6 to 8 pm.
Nevine Mahmoud makes stone strange: borders are dissolved just enough to embrace a delicate place of perplexity and eroticism. It is in these fluid moments, where the object is untethered from its origin, that a thoughtful inquiry on the nature of representation and illusion is clarified. Reality is undressed, made malleable, and the stone Mahmoud shapes and sculpts is done with intuitive logic. In keeping with her earlier body of work, Mahmoud engages with elements of design, while challenging the role of functionality. This provocation is clear within each object and teases us with the possibility of a perky utility, while championing the re-objectified body.
Mahmoud’s concerns with the fragmented body are prevalent throughout the exhibition, in a multifold of approaches. The figure is conjured as a provocative tongue unfurling from the gallery wall; it is eroticized in the carved form of a glistening and buttery peach; and it is offered in the shape of a marbleized breast—the bright pink nipple, a glowing invitation.
The theatrical position of each object in dialogue with another implies a performative act—a passing into, through and out of. The sculptures mirror one another; a companion bearing figurative semblance and sharing her story of origin—a psychic bond. These echoes are visible in formal relationships: they are one another’s shadows; some begin where the other ends, and often there is a clear positive and negative tension at play. Stone is literally been pulled apart and history of the process emerges. This process acts as a conceptual binder, bringing the work into an arena where the air is charged with anticipation. It is in this theater of objects that each sculpture becomes portals into worlds unto themselves and unfold unexpected meanings with each slow viewing.
Nevine Mahmoud (b. 1988, London) received her BA from Goldsmiths, University of London and MFA from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She has participated in numerous exhibitions, including most recently Dreamers Awake: Women Artists After Surrealism at White Cube, Bermondsey. Mahmoud’s work was also on view in The Poet, the Critic and the Missing at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; This is Presence at Ballroom Marfa, TX; and The Lasting Concept at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art. Other thematic exhibitions include An Uncanny Order at Jessica Silverman, San Francisco; Debris at James Fuentes, New York; and Seven Reeds at Overduin & Co., Los Angeles. Notable press includes MOUSSE, Art Review, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times, and Contemporary Art Daily. Nevine Mahmoud lives and works in Los Angeles.
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