LUCIA LEZZA | DATE 1/18/2025

Artbook at MoMA PS1 Bookstore presents Sohrab Hura launching 'Things Felt But Not Quite Expressed'

Saturday January 18 at 3 PM, Artbook at MoMA PS1 Bookstore presents the launch of the MACK publication on Sohrab Hura's drawings Things Felt But Not Quite Expressed. Hura will be in conversation with curator Lekha Jandhyala.

Q&A followed by a book signing.

Event livestreamed on Instagram at @artbookps1.

Please RSVP for the event and pre-order a book signed by Sohrab Hura here.

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 technicolor soft pastel to imbue his portraits, and still life 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.

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 immortalize feeling through art.

Sohrab Hura is a photographer and filmmaker who lives and works in New Delhi, India. Recent solo and group exhibitions have been presented at Huis Marseille Museum for Photography, Amsterdam; Liverpool Biennial 2021; Kunstmuseum Bonn; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge; and the Cincinnati Art Museum. His films have been shown in film festivals such as the Berlin International Film Festival and the 66th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Hura has self-published five books under the imprint Ugly Dog. His work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai; and the Cincinnati Art Museum, among others.

Lekha Jandhyala is a curator based in New York. Originally from Los Angeles, she has collaborated with international artists and collectives on exhibitions, commissions, and publications. Jandhyala has previously held positions at François Ghebaly, Fondazione Prada, Forma, KHŌJ, Asia Society India Center, REDCAT, The Velaslavasay Panorama, and Pomona College Museum of Art. Currently an MA'25 candidate at CCS Bard, she is interested in practices that circumvent authorship.

Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Bookstore
Sohrab Hura and Lekha Jandhyala on 'Things Felt But Not Quite Expressed'
Saturday, January 18 at 3 PM
22-25 Jackson Ave (at 46th Ave.)
Long Island City, NY 11101
(718) 433-1088
RSVP and pre-order a signed book at artbookstores.com