Seeking Intimacy

For Shakibul, remembering queer history is a vibrant celebration—of life, resilience, expression, and pride. An ode to pioneers, and futures where queer love moves freely.

Artist

Shakibul Islam (MFA - Sir J.J. School of Art, Architecture and Design, Mumbai; BFA - Government College of Art and Crafts, Kolkata)

Medium

Painting

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About

Seeking Intimacy challenges normative boundaries from the outset. Shakibul Islam's arresting, vivid palette exists not merely for beauty or shock—its deliberate intensity invites pause, anchoring viewers in active encounter.

Oscillating between surreal dreamscapes and serene intimacies, his works probe the subconscious's deepest desires. Fantastical forms and shifting terrains blur boundaries of sensuality and longing.

But Shakibul also grounds his vision in the everyday, placing queer lovers in leisurely interludes and mundane routines. He asserts their presence as ordinary, inseparable parts of contemporary Indian life—etching the portrait of the queer family into the nation's visual language.