Samir Mahmood is a Pakistani artist based in Dublin. In his country of origin, Mahmood trained as a medical doctor, and immigrated to Ireland to pursue studies in the field of medicine. However, he abandoned this career to embrace art, and has been working as an artist since the mid-2010s. 

Mahmood’s practice encompasses painting, textiles, objects and video, with a particular focus on themes of identity, representation, bodily awareness and spiritual transformation. The works draw from the techniques and materials of traditional miniature painting from the Indian subcontinent, but subvert the typical, conventional narratives and imageries associated with this style through motifs that explore his lived experience as a queer person with an Islamic upbringing. 

This exhibition showcases a selection of works created by Mahood in the past five years. A key feature of the exhibition is a series of scrolls portraying joyous celebrations of sexual freedom against the background of the garden as a symbol of both paradise across religions and utopia within the civic realm. The exhibition explores what the artist calls ‘queerscapes’ – transcendental spaces of liberation where bodies, on their own or in dialogue with nature, are interacting, mutating, coalescing, and dissolving.