This October, Waterstone Gallery is pleased to present new work by Sabina Haque. The New Abnormal is a painting installation reflecting the climate crisis in the two places Haque calls home — Oregon and Pakistan. Her artwork references the 2020 fires in Detroit and Otis, Oregon and the catastrophic floods of 2022 in Pakistan. With over 35 million people displaced by these disasters, Haque asks "how do we survive in a destroyed environment? Can we find beauty there? Can we imagine the impossible?" Haque's paintings explore themes of destruction, renewal and possible paths forward through a radically unrecognizable landscape.

Sabina layers paint and photographs to create alternative realities or portals that are metaphors for the interconnectedness of people and environments. Magical portals or windows transport us to a renewed, transformed place. She applies paint to memorialize scarred and abandoned sites. The paintings recast them, making them surreally beautiful. The images reorient the viewer’s connection to time which visually collapses past, present and potential future.

"We need to be prepared for situations that might currently appear impossible" – Vikki Thompson, climatologist

Sabina Haque creates multimedia art installations to explore transformations of place and identity. Raised in Karachi, Pakistan by American and Pakistani parents, Haque has spent half her life in America. Collaboration with BIPOC youth and immigrant communities of color is a vital part of Haque’s practice. She has partnered with Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, Africa House, and schools in East-Portland to facilitate civic engagement through art. This work was curated into the 2019-Portland-Biannual.

Sabina Haque received an M.F.A in Painting from Boston University and teaches Art at Portland State University, Oregon. She has received noted fellowships like the Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship. Haque has participated in residencies including Artist in Residence at the Portland Archives and Records Center and the TEDx Artist in Residence program and the Jordon Schnitzer Printmaking Residency. Noted public collections include the Gordon Gilkey Print Center at the Portland Art Museum, the Jordan Schnitzer Collection and City of Portland’s and Seattle’s Public Portable Art Collections.

Click on an image below for an enlarged view