Ali is based in Manchester. She has exhibited in the UK and has work in public and private collections. In 2018 she was artist-in-residence at The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester. She was also a founder and member of print collective Rhubarb & Custard. Print Unltd was presented by the University of Salford Art Collection in partnership with Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Salford Community Leisure, Hot Bed Press, and was funded by Arts Council England.
Image: Courtesy of Jules Lister
Ali’s My Tiles was originally commissioned for Print Unltd, an exhibition of four North West based artists making new work which aims to celebrate and challenge printmaking practices today. My Tiles is inspired by the tradition of Islamic geometric pattern-making, which uses tessellated shapes and repeated motifs to create often intricate designs. They may be used to consider topics of unity, infinity and connection.
Rather than using digital scanning or editing, Ali’s works are all carefully drawn by hand before being exposed directly on screens. The first image in the series consists of a simple diamond shape; and as the work progresses new patterns and colours are added to each print. As the edition number increases, further pattern and colour is added – creating an unusual method of editioning the work wherein higher edition numbers become more complex works. In total Ali created an edition of 50 prints with 6 sub-editions. The first and last in the series, on display here, were acquired into the Collection.
Image: Courtesy of Sam Parker
“Lubna was not only a scholar but was selected from an open submission to take part in Print UnLtd a major exhibition of 4 commissioned artists at Salford Museum & Art Gallery in 2018. Responding to the brief to challenge the preconceptions of printmaking Lubna went on to produce a large series of prints building from one colour and one pattern design to over 30 colours in an evolving series of prints.
Each print in the series was different and grew from the last print. The full set of large prints existed as a whole art piece and individually. The concept of value of prints based on amount of work put in incrementally increasing each print was also integral to the work with the first print in one colour priced at less than the next, each colour adding value to the print, building to the most expensive 30 colour last print. Seeing Lubna question the nature and understanding of printmaking in this was a real highlight and opened quite a few people’s eyes to challenging print and gallery constructs. Oh and they are beautiful prints too!”
~ Sean Rorke, Artistic Director at Hot Bed Press
