Meet the Artists

Asif Hoque (b. 1991, Rome, Italy) is a Brooklyn-based artist whose figurative paintings explore identity, cultural hybridity, and mythology through a fusion of Eastern and Western visual traditions. Born to Bangladeshi parents and raised between Rome and South Florida, Hoque draws on his diverse upbringing to create lush, emotionally resonant works that merge South Asian miniature painting with the dramatic compositions of Baroque masters like Rubens.

His evolving practice blends classical iconography with personal symbolism, using materials like terracotta and gold to evoke memory, history, and spiritual depth. Gold, in particular, recurs as a symbol of light and personal loss, inspired by a cherished family crest necklace and embodied in Golden Boy—a golden-armored figure reflecting themes of protection and love. Influenced by his Florida upbringing, his travels, and artists like Agnes Pelton and Joaquín Sorolla, Hoque’s work increasingly embraces the natural world, creating a visual language that is at once tender, mythic, and deeply personal. Through this blending of past and present, Hoque constructs a contemporary mythology—one that reimagines classical forms to reflect his own story and cultural landscape.