“But beauty can arrive uninvited can it not?” the Indian author Arundhati Roy has written. “It can fall upon things unexpectedly, like sunlight stealing through a chink in the curtains.” Roy’s wisdom is not lost on the Pakistani-American sculptor Huma Bhabha, who often refers to those lines when describing her practice. Bhabha reveals the beauty in discarded objects—cork, styrofoam, clay, chicken wire, rubber tires—by repurposing them in sculptural installations. Often described as “post-apocalyptic,” her poetic assemblages show a wide range of influences: Ancient Egypt, African art, classicism, Cubism, even German Expressionism. In this survey, 20 years of beauty according to Bhabha are on display. —E.C.

Huma Bhabha
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Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art / Gateshead / Art
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art / Gateshead / Art
Huma Bhabha, Untitled, 2009 and “Receiver,” 2018. Courtesy the artist and Salon 94, New York. BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art 2020. Photo: Rob Harris © 2020 BALTIC.
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