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Maria QamarAugust 1 - October 6, 2019

FRAAAANDSHIP!

Richard Taittinger Gallery is pleased to present Desi-Pop artist Maria Qamar for her first solo show in New York City. Qamar’s start in the art world began largely through Instagram where she cultivated a devout group of over 166k followers, including art critic Roberta Smith, Mindy Kaling and the New York Times, with her Instagram handle @hatecopy. With our summer show, Fraaaandship!, Richard Taittinger Gallery is working to bring this online Instagram community to the physical art world providing a gallery experience to many art lovers who are more familiar with viewing art through their screens. This relationship with a social media star serves to disrupt our white wall space and draw it into the new world of online art communities creating a more open and accessible space.

This series of Qamar’s work deals specifically with the realities of online interaction from a strong feminist perspective. Online communication, social media, and a sense of personal branding have changed, or at least complicated, the concept of friendship. She questions a further distortion of the term into “fraaaandship.” In the Desi community, the use of the term “fraaaandship” on social media and communications apps such as Instagram, Whatsapp, and Facebook, takes on a sexual, and potentially shady connotation. Offers of “fraaaandship” often come totally unsolicited and are unwanted.

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Featured Artist(s)

Maria Qamar is a first-generation Canadian from a traditional South Asian family; her mother is Indian, her father Bangladeshi. She moved to Canada at the age of nine in 2001 and was forced to endure bullying and racism as a young...

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    For Press Inquiries, please contact Jenna Ferrey, jenna@richardtaittinger.com

    The Cut – The Artist Blending Pop Art and Indian Soap Operas

    By: Bindu Bansinath August 28, 2019   For South Asian women “Fraaaandship?” is an inside joke, an unwanted solicitation, the sound of strange men creeping into your DMs. “Fraaaandship!” is also the title of Maria Qamar’s art installation at the Richard Taittinger…

    Eazel – Learning Hinglish in New York City: An Interview with Maria Qamar

    By: Jenna Ferrey August 28, 2019   Maria Qamar’s bright Pop-Art canvases have brough a splash of color to Richard Taittinger Gallery and New York City’s Lower East Side. Qamar’s exhibition FRAAAANDSHIP! explores some of the realities and challenges of gender,…

    Artnet News – How Maria Qamar’s Feminist Desi Pop Art Went Viral on Instagram, Charmed Mindy Kaling, and Broke Into the New York Art World

    By: Sarah Cascone August 22, 2019   The title of artist Maria Qamar’s first solo show, “Fraaaandship,” comes from a popular pickup line among South Asian men. The Canadian-Pakistani artist—who has become an Instagram sensation for her feminist-tinged, Pop art-influenced riffs…

    Fine Art Globe – Interview: Maria Qamar’s Big Reveal

    By: Heather Zises August 22, 2019   Currently disrupting the white walls at Richard Taittinger Gallery is Fraaaandship!, Desi-Pop artist Maria Qamar’s inaugural solo show in New York City.  Playful and bright, the exhibition (which runs from August 1 to October 6), features colorful works…

    The American Bazaar – Pop artist Maria Qamar’s Solo Exhibition ‘Fraaaandship!’ Captures Quirks and Eccentricities of Growing up Desi

    By: Zofeen Maqsood August 15, 2019   If you are a desi girl and have lived in the subcontinent growing up, then chances are that sometime in your life you must have gotten an offer for Fraaandship from a fellow desi guy…

    Brown Girl Magazine – Hatecopy on Her Solo Exhibition, ‘FRAAAANDSHIP,’ and its Roaring Success

    By: Sandeep Panesar August 13, 2019     Maria Qamar, aka Hatecopy, is hosting hundreds of guests all month long after she unveiled her latest collection titled ‘FRAAAANDSHIP,’ at the Richard Tattinger Gallery in New York City, on August 1,…

    VICE – Maria Qamar Refuses to Keep Her Art a Secret Anymore

    By: Bettina Makalintal August 19, 2019   The internet has been good for Maria Qamar, the Toronto-based artist known as @hatecopy, giving her not just a platform for art she once did in secret, but also a community of over 176,000…

    Time Out New York – The Top Five New York Art Shows This Week

    By: Howard Halle August 19, 2019   With New York’s art scene being so prominent yet ever changing, you’ll want to be sure to catch significant shows. Time Out New York rounds up the top five art exhibitions of the week, from…

    Bedford and Bowery – The Last Little Skips Shows and More Art This Week

    By: Cassidy Dawn Graves July 30, 2019   Fraaaandship! Opening Thursday, August 1 at Richard Taittinger Gallery, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through September 2. This exhibition marks “desi-pop” artist Maria Qamar’s first solo show in the city, but you…

    Forbes – Desi-Pop Artist Maria Qamar Hosts First Solo Show And Shares Her Journey In The Business Of Art

    By: Jia Wertz August 16, 2019   Maria Qamar, a Desi-Pop artist who became Instagram-famous for her South Asian art, is hosting her first solo show in New York City at the Richard Taittinger Gallery until September 2nd, a contemporary art gallery that focuses…

    New York Times – Maria Qamar’s Bold Art Is Both Therapy and Weapon

    By: Alisha Haridasani Gupta August 14, 2019   A 10-foot-tall inflatable red lota, a wall covered with balloons resembling bags of Maggi noodles, and a painting of an angry bindi-wearing woman declaring “Mera jism, mera hathyar!” These works of art at Maria Qamar’s exhibition, “Fraaaandship!,” at Richard…

    Kulture Hub – Desi-Pop artist Maria Qamar is reclaiming art space for women of color

    By: Lily Darling August 6, 2019   Maria Qamar, better known by her Instagram handle @hatecopy, is a Desi-Pop artist whose art refuses translation. After working as a copy editor (hence the pseudonym), Qamar turned to art as a form of…