There is a maxim in the modern world that runs something like ‘If you think education is expensive- Try ignorance.’ The same is the case with Shahzad Zar’s astounding giant mixed media paintings- If an art lover ignores his art, he is indeed ignorant about art.
With his 38 art pieces of mixed media on canvas and paper, young Shahzad Zar opened his solo exhibition on Thursday at Tanzara Gallery. In his recent collection, his works reference miniature art and are fanciful with Shahzad using elephant images and a female studded with jewellery. As in Mughal miniature, the female form takes centre stage, with the bride being the subject of many of these pieces. Shahzad focuses on the Eastern bride with her clothing and jewellery. The artist has chosen the loosely woven theme of ‘traditional marriage’ as his subject, his notion of every girl’s dream and adding some extravagance, he portrays elephants.
In his imagery, the elephants are well-decorated while the elegantly outlined bridal forms are representative, colourfully decked and without any identifying features. These mixed media pieces may be interpreted in several ways, perhaps they highlight the traditional prodigality of events, or simply incorporate diverse components juxtaposed with fine linear elements. Shahzad has experimented with enthusiasm, introducing in the works a colourful collage of wallpaper, prints, and coloured paper, ink and acrylic paint to emphasis the subject as he doffs his cap to schools of miniature art.
Shahzad Zar is perhaps the last young artist to have been guided by Ali Imam. When the artist first approached Imam, the Karachi-based Shahzad was in his teens, struggling to teach himself the art of collage, mixing organic materials, and paint. The legend Imam was interested in Shahzad’s work and in his determination to be an artist, giving him advice and suggestions while monitoring his progress since then.
Four years later, Imam felt the artist was ready for an exhibition at the prestigious ‘Indus Gallery’ and Shahzad launched his solo exhibition in 1999. Since then the old days are over for him.
According to Salwat Ali, an art critic, Shahzad Zar is a collagist with a difference. He first began gluing wood shavings to the paper surface and this prompted him to examine the textural qualities of dried leaves. Walking around Karachi’s nurseries, streets and gardens he began to notice the various stages leaves went through once they had fallen from the trees. After gathering these furled, twisted, cracked autumn leaves, he soaked them in water and then laid them out gently, indoors, to dry.
Having experienced it himself, Shahzad is fully aware of the travails of aspiring young artists. To help others undergoing the same tribulations and to lobby for the cause of art he has formed Zar’s Youth Art Circle. The chief aim of this group is to provide moral support, financial assistance and exhibition opportunities to budding artists at relevant galleries. A subsidiary of this circle is the Zack Art Studio which is a permanent venue for the display of artworks by young artists Tanzara Gallery Curator and Director Noshi Qadir, commenting on the work said Shahzad’s ability was to craft new materials for expression that initially set him apart from the rest. “Since then he has undergone several phases of development arriving successfully to a stage where his work exudes vitality and gives the viewers a contemporary glimpse of times past and present,” Noshi said.
She said in his recent work Shahzad’s referenced miniature art, inducting the elephant image as an ancient emblem of the country’s soil, as on the seals found in Mohenjodaro or the long considered symbol of royalty. “Shahzad’s work has always revealed a cultural dimension. His imagery is far from literal representation, it appears to emerge from his animation of perception, employing fine webs of colour, delicate lines, patterns and modulated brush strokes on canvas and paper while allowing full reign to his inherent joy in colour and design,” Noshi concluded. The exhibition will continue at Tanzara Gallery, House No. 14, Street No. 12, F-7/2, till October 22.
