Things Felt But Not Quite Expressed collects Sohrab Hura’s kinetic illustrations made between 2022 and 2024 of everyday scenes of love, joy, family, and relationships. Renowned for his self-published photographic books, here Hura departs from the fixedness of the photographic form, using technicolour soft pastel to imbue his portraits, still lifes, and quotidian scenes with fluidity and to charge them with feeling. We see tender portraits of ailing family members, vivid sunsets and free-flowing bodies of water, mischievous pets and siblings, spectral figures meeting in unrefined landscapes, and surreal cremation rites. Portraits of isolation and illness are interleaved with recreated memes and convivial tableaux. The sardonic titles of the works collude with the viewer to poke fun at the drawings’ subjects but also at the artist himself, creating an intimate viewing experience.
Sohrab Hura & Lekha Jandhyala: ’Things Felt But Not Quite Expressed’ [Book launch & talk]
Join us for the launch of Sohrab Hura’s new book Things Felt But Not Quite Expressed, where Hura will be in conversation with the curator Lekha Jandhyala about his departure from the fixedness of the photographic form. The book launch coincides with Sohrab Hura’s first US survey Mother on show at MoMA PS1 until February 17, 2025. The talk will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing.
Saturday 18 January
16:00
Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Bookstore
22-25 Jackson Ave
Long Island City
NY, 11102
RSVP here
The event will be live streamed on Instagram at @artbookps1
About Things Felt But Not Quite Expressed
These works originated in a period in which the artist felt unable to connect with the permanency of photographs. Pivoting to drawing enabled him to capture the whimsy and ephemerality of everyday life within an increasingly polarised world. This playful tone is extended by the book’s mix of impressionist and surrealist style, making for an unpredictable volume which experiments with how to evoke and immortalise feeling through art.