On Sunday, September 30, 2018, the afghan-german artist Aatifi with studio in Bielefeld/Germany was honored at the Gustav Lübcke Museum in Hamm for his abstract-scriptural art. In front of more than 400 guests he received a recognition award for the exhibition "HIER andJETZT - Aktuelle Kunst in Westfalen ("HERE and NOW - Contemporary Art in Westphalia"), in which he is represented with a large format painting (Untitled 2, 140 x 190 cm, Acrylic on canvas, Aatifi 2017).

Out of the exhibited works of 61 artists - painting, graphics, sculpture, object art, installation, photography and video art - an eleven-member jury has selected three winners of the art award of the city of Hamm and two recognition prizes "after intense discussion". The high quality of the short-listed works of art made a decision very difficult, explained jury member Torsten Cremer, chairman of the foundation of the Sparkasse Hamm for art and cultural care.

In his abstract-scriptural painting Aatifi creates with dynamism, expression and color light-flooded spatiality, with his synthesis of spirited calligraphic components and stylistic devices of modern Western art, he creates cross-cultural and trans-national bridges, so the jury's statement. The exhibition ends on 28. Oct. 2018 

 Untitled 2  I  140 x 190 cm  I  Acrylic on canvas  I  Aatifi  I  2017

"HIER andJETZT - Aktuelle Kunst in Westfalen ("HERE and NOW - Contemporary Art in Westphalia")

Gustav-Lübcke-Museum Hamm, Germany

Verve 1  I  purple, magenta, pink  I  75 x 90 cm  I   Ink on laid paper 640 g  I  Aatifi 2018

paper positions basel

12. - 17.06.2018

Basel Art Week

Galerie Von & Von

Ackermannshof

St. Johanns-Vorstadt 19-21

4056 Basel

Schweiz

Untitled 4  I  75 x 90 cm  I  Ink, metal, graphite on laid paper  I  Aatifi  I  2017

       Untitled  I  120 x 150 cm  I  Acrylic on canvas  I  Aatifi  I  2017

Paintings and works on paper

June 19th – Juli 15th 2017

(Artist Talk) and film: Wednesday, July 5th 2017, 7:30pm

Kunsthandel Müller-Held (Art Advising and Trade Müller-Held)

Bad Oeynhausen-Lohe

www.mueller-held-kunst.de

Untitled  I  140 x 170 cm  I  Acrylic on canvas  I  Aatifi  I  2017

6/24 – 7/29/2017

Galerie Von & Von (Gallery Von & Von)

Nuremberg, Germany

Untitled  I  190 x 160 cm  I  Acrylic on canvas  I  Aatifi  I  2017

SimonBart Gallery

Sardinia, Italy

Ohne Titel  I  120 x 180 cm  I  Acryl auf Leinwand  I  Aatifi  I  2017

Solo exhibition

Paintings and works on paper

7/14 – 10/12/2017

Vernissage and Summer Party: Thursday, July 13th 2017, 6:30pm – 9pm

Invited guests only

Internationaler Club in the Auswärtiges Amt e.V.

(International Club in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Berlin

www.icaa.de

Untitled  I  140 x 170 cm  I  Acrylic on canvas  I  Aatifi  I  2017

Solo exhibition

Works on canvas and paper

9/6 – 11/15/2017

Opening Reception and Künstlergespräch (Artist Talk): Tuesday, September 5th 2017, 7pm, Invited guests only

Tilman Kriesel

TKA Art Advisors

Hamburg

www.artadvisors.de

Exhibition DIE GROSSE Kunstausstellung NRW in the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, Germany - Opening Saturday, 18th of February 2017 with almost 2.000 Visitors.

19.2. - 12.3.2017

group exhibition at the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

Untitled  I  100 x 150 cm  I  Ink, metal, graphite on laid paper  I  Aatifi  I  2016

In a world which alienates itself from classic crafts by digital cataclysms, writing is one of the few cultural techniques, the loss of which soonest becomes noticeable in everyday life. However, what are the possibilities which are still inherent in handwriting? Could the engagement in traditional Islamic calligraphy give new insights in the effects of shapes? The artist Aatifi has found fascinating

answers to these questions. Abstraction is an ongoing process. It embodies the perception of everlasting changes in the world.

Something new is created simultaneously giving rise to new prospects, thus letting us gain access to enriching experiences. A tool like literary language can play a focal role in this understanding. Aatifi is an Afghan-German artist, whose career is based upon his time in Kabul, Dresden and Bielefeld, his early education as master of calligraphy and his studies of painting. In his art, he isolates the delicate calligraphic figures from their surroundings to fragment them afterwards into their basic aesthetic elements. The detachment of the shape of the word from its content and meaning enables him to use the figure in a composition. In doing so, the fragments

create a complex space on the canvas supported by their diverse colours and materials. Every possibility to interpret his mother tongue has thus vanished allowing the outside observer to find an independent access to the depicted figures. It is the lack of lexical connections, despite its source in classic calligraphy, that makes his abstract art exceptional. Aatifi places the constant struggle

between semiotics and semantics on a pedestal in order to put a case up for the transformation of and for playing with language.

The Museum für Islamische Kunst in the Pergamon Museum Berlin invited the artist into the rooms of their permanent exhibition in 2015. The works shown in his solo exhibition ‘Aatifi – News from Afghanistan’ established a dialogue between the ancient colossal buildings and the exhibits of the museum’s collection thus revealing that Aatifi’s art discusses the sense of belonging and of beingdifferent. By orientating himself towards European masters and abstract contemporary art as well as by his own life experiences, Aatifi is continuously searching for a balance.

Osmosis is the principle that keeps this balance alive and constitutes Aatifi’s art. Cultural concepts and their vast scale are abstracted. Compressed and set free, they wander from one secluded room to the next. Canvas and paper are turned into membranes for appropriated ideas, for the genuine and for the combined. His oeuvre bridges the divide between things which are all too unfamiliar at first sight and seemingly unapproachable

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Raiko Oldenettel, Art Historian

Untitled  I  90 x 80 cm  I  metal, graphite on laid paper  I  Aatifi  I  2016