Treizième composition XII Painting

Née 1972 Xandria Noir is an East Anglia (Suffolk UK) based critically acclaimed Pakistani contemporary artist-design consultant and a care consultant experienced in mental health support through art for dementia and Parkinson's Care. Self-taught and an established painter since 1989, she was named as one of Pakistan’s top 15 minimalist artists in December 2019 following her Moi et le Monde Imparfait exhibition at the French Embassy in Islamabad. In December 2021 she again exhibited in Islamabad: 'La Perfection Imparfaite' summarised Noir's work during the pandemic lockdown and illustrated a style quite different in use of depth and colour to her previous oeuvre. Apart from her projects with companies and embassies as a multi field designer, Noir is an immensely innovative artist who is constantly interrogating her style and response to her world. This means that she has no 'signature style' and cannot be said to follow any particular school. Noir has exhibited widely over the last three decades and has undertaken numerous commissions internationally and in Pakistan. She works within several disciplines but currently, her focus is on acrylic on canvas. Her art is based on the in-depth exploration of one idea, executed with meticulous precision. Following an eight-year creative gap after 2005, her work moved to large-scale canvases in 2013 emphasising bold black strokes in conjunction with bright colours. Soon her work evolved into minimalist art, reflecting a pursuit of peace. Noir’s current practice consists of minimalist paintings mainly in acrylic. The abstraction in her work is the rhythm conveyed through interrelation of empty space and repetition of the singular stroke under multiple layers. In her work, light and lines of different dimensions freely inhabit weightless spaces. Her style is characterized by a shift of high passion, spontaneity, and belief in freedom of expression through its meditative power. Her work encodes darkness and secrecy behind apparent serenity through minimalist expressions: she pairs ugliness with beauty, torment with comfort, anger with compliance and anguish with hope, with the ultimate aim of creating peace in the viewer’s mind.