A splash of vibrant colour hangs in the middle of the white wall.
A piano surrounded by multiple layers of colour, as if representing the contrasting sounds of music floating across the canvas. Or they could be reflections of ceiling lights, darting like fireflies on the shiny tiles of the floor. Nidhi Wiesner’s paintings tell a million different stories, each one unique in itself, transforming from every angle her artwork is viewed. An artist who recently arrived in Doha, Nidhi is just breaking into the Doha art scene after living a traveller’s life abroad.
The German-born artist has travelled extensively, including much of Europe, India, Australia (where she lived with her family for twelve years), Thailand, Indonesia and Nepal, in addition to her current stay in Doha. She has held exhibitions in Sydney, Brisbane (both in Australia), as well as Cologne (Germany) and most recently in London. It was her husband, however, who has worked in an advertising agency here for four years, who originally brought her to Doha – and after an initial visit,
she decided to stay for a longer period.
Born and raised in Germany, Nidhi attended the Fine Art Institute in Cologne (which is famed throughout Germany for its contemporary art), where she came under the influence of such famous European artists as Britain’s Francis Bacon and Germany’s Anselm Kiefer. Although she originally started out using the more traditional artistic styles such as Realism, it is abstract forms of art that most appeal to her now, and account for the majority of her work to date.
Along with her love for travelling and Eastern meditation (one of the reasons she later visited India), all these influences have come together to inspire her work over the last 25 years.
Many of her paintings reflect her interest in the East and the spiritual nature of life there, recreating soft edges and elements somehow lacking definition but leaving something for the imagination to play with. Nidhi leaves many of her paintings untitled, allowing the viewer free reign to interpret her artwork as they imagine it to be. She’s already completed some artworks based on her impressions on life (so far) in Qatar. One series focuses on the atmosphere in hotel lobbies where there’s simply a basic outline hinting at a chair or a piano with all other details merging together in a panoply of colour - as though it’s this one object that has been singled out as of paramount importance. Which is just the point that Nidhi wants to make - the creation of the painting may be the work of the individual, but the ultimate message should be ambiguous enough for anyone to create their own interpretation from what they see in the painting.
She has also achieved much recognition for her most recent work, a series of paintings called “Fields of Origin” that have presented a more personal journey. The series, created on her return to Europe from the twelve years spent in Australia, present her reflection on returning to her home continent as well as what she has termed a “search for her roots”. This series of paintings present a completely different view of Europe from what is normally thought of as a traditional European landscape, with heavy use of browns and ochres to create stark images of barren lands. |
Whereas most people might not think there would be much artistic opportunity in a place as small and as limited in landscape variety as Qatar, Nidhi was adamant to comment “it’s inspiring to be here - it’s something totally different. There’s always inspiration looking at things with new eyes”. To elaborate on this point, she adds “Qatar is expanding exponentially. There is boundless opportunity for me to expand, from the artistic point of view. The country has grown so quickly and so many people are working here, bringing their expertise to build the country, that I see a place that could provide a reference point for me to experience this transfer and exchange of energy to illuminate my work.” Change and development is central to Nidhi’s work – much of the way in which she creates her art depends on the ebb and flow in the world around her. While living in Australia and London, she felt these places changing so much and moving forwards so rapidly that these energies infused her work. For Nidhi, this chance to grow as an artist, completes the circle as artists become or reflect the soul of the city or country they are in.
While Nidhi is well-established in other parts of the world, she is looking forward to setting the art community alight and influencing trends in art, fusing international expertise with the influences here in the region. “There are many new homes, offices, hotels and grand projects in Qatar which need to express their individuality through colour, form, shape and light and my art gives voice to these spaces” says Nidhi Wiesner. “Perhaps the art scene here in Qatar is not as well-established as I am used to, but the opportunity to be a pioneer and pave the way for artistic community and expression is what I hope to be a part of. In every desert, there is an oasis, and artists’ congregating and showing their work will build the platform. I see Qatar as a cultural capital of the future where art and artistry will find their rightful place”.
As things stand at the moment, the best place to see her art is probably her home, which contains several wonderful examples of her art. Her website www.nidhiweisner.com also features her earlier work now hanging in galleries across the world. “It’s more about “emotionscapes” than actual landscapes”. Nidhi talks about the emotive, rather than the expressive, the ambiguous rather than the direct as elements in her paintings, particularly the abstract. She comments, “Abstraction is key to my painting. During my time spent in Australia, I captured vast landscapes on my canvas using soil, sticks, twigs and sand to create added texture, a 3-dimensional rough surface, placing the essence of the environment within the artwork.” The environment provides the inspiration as well as the substance through which she expresses her imagination.
“In Qatar I see yellows and blues, from the desert to the sea and there are so many variations and subtleties within these 2 primary colours” comments Nidhi, referring to Qatar and what inspiration it has already given her, before adding with a smile, “inside I see all the colours, because the light is unique and exposes all the colours I can think of.”
If you look at her paintings, it is often the colours themselves, rather than the objects which take centre stage. Her artworks come alive through vivid colour, a myriad of brushstrokes expressing moments of intensity in time. Basing her work primarily on spontaneity and creativity rather than a traditional school of artistic thought, Nidhi’s paintings are explosions of colour – this free-spiritedness gives Nidhi a sense of ‘Freiheit’ (or freedom), as she describes it (much of her speech is peppered with German words and phrases). This creativity through inspiration is evident through much of what Nidhi says - she represents a typical artist, waiting for inspiration to move her to paint. “Right now,” she says, “I don’t have any pre-conceived notions of what to paint and certainly you won’t be seeing any stereotypical Arabian desert landscapes, more an expression of what these landscapes evoke inside me.”
With this sense of optimism and opportunity for growth, who knows what new wonders will happen in the Doha art scene in the future once Nidhi exhibits in her first show. Perhaps it will act as a catalyst for further artistic endeavour and a more colourful Doha.
Nidhi Wiesner’s work can be viewed by private appointment visiting her website www.nidhiwiesner.com
All original photography by Rosalie Wiesner. ©All rights reserved. See her website www.rosaliewiesner.com |
