Muna Malik
Dark Times, 2022
Acrylic, Pastel, Charcoal on canvas
53 1/2 x 100 1/8 in
135.9 x 254.3 cm
135.9 x 254.3 cm
8457
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With its mixture of pure abstraction and embedded references to the visual language of an American flag, Dark Times is among Muna Malik’s most illustrative works. The complexities and layers...
With its mixture of pure abstraction and embedded references to the visual language of an American flag, Dark Times is among Muna Malik’s most illustrative works. The complexities and layers within the composition are expressive of Malik’s experiences as a Black woman and immigrant living in America. The painting slowly came together over the course of more than two years. Malik watched major world events playing out on the news—some were chaotic, some were calm—and let the overstimulation of the media coverage transform into the material and visual events happening on the canvas. Malik’s reactions to the political and social developments she was witnessing manifested aesthetically as representations of movement and streaks of light, like fireworks in the night. “Coming from Somali culture and Yemeni culture, all we do is live, breathe, talk political conversations, arguing and debating politics,” says Malik. “I’ve always seen the world from a political landscape, and seen my identity within that same landscape. As an artist, I can dive in and dive out of it. I can have a physical purging so I don’t need to talk about it.”