Ames Yavuz presents Noemata, a solo exhibition of paintings by Nadia Waheed. The works on view adopt an ethos of transformative attention and agency, and interface closely with the realities of the artist’s life within and beyond the studio.

Noemata marks a new evolution in the artist’s practice, known for its layering of myth, science, religion and philosophy to craft complex autobiographical meditations. Here, Waheed embraces the material possibilities and unpredictability of paint, and synthesises it with her instinct for drawing. A new tension arises on the surfaces of the works. As coined by phenomenologist Edmund Husserl, “noesis” refers to the act of intentional consciousness and the subjective pole of a directed thought or perception. The figures, references, paint and line in the works, pass through this sharp lens, an artistic and personal strategy used to contend with experiences of change, fear, joy and uncertainty.