Gallery 6 reopens with new face

After running successfully in realm of promotion of art and culture in the capital, holding a number of exhibitions, Gallery 6, after being relocated from G-10 to F-8, is to display the first painting exhibition at its newly furnished Gallery6 from today (Saturday).
With the title ‘66 Statements,’ having paintings, drawings, sculptures, relief work, prints and photographs, the new premises of Gallery 6 is spread over 5000 square feet with more than 400 running feet of display wall-space, making it the largest private gallery in the capital.
The exhibition includes 63 artists from Islamabad, Karachi, Jamshoro, Lahore and Chakwal, two from Australia and one from USA, who will display a large variety of works.
Sculptors are five, with a good display of four different mediums – clay, fibre glass, wood and metal. Drawings are by a senior artist Saeed Akhtar; Nazir Ahmed, a recent graduate of NCA Rawalpindi; Henri Souffay, a French man married to a Pakistani woman and settled in Karachi for 35 years; and Athar Jamal from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. Each one of them exhibits a distinctively different style.
Print makers are Zaira Ahmed and Aleem Dad Khan, the two faculty members of NCA Rawalpindi, and Adnan Samuel Javed from Lahore. Two signed prints of a leading Australian artist Phillip Hall, who uses traditional Aboriginal Art technique in his paintings, are also on display.
Calligraphy works by six artists are also noticeably different. It includes masters like Rashid Ahmed Arshed and Ahmed Khan, meticulous Akram Spaul, splashy Arif Khan, vibrant Tahir Bin Qalandar and new entrant like Tayyab Munawwar. However, one thing common in all the works is that they are bright, lively and colourful.
Landscapes include a brilliant work of Ghulam Rasool on bohsaar. A fascinating landscape in acrylic and ink is by an Australian artist Gabrielle Pool, showing “fertility trees” in Africa against a sunset background. Other works are by well-known names like Nazir Ahmed, Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi and Mughees Riaz. Among them, also standing prominently is also the rapidly upcoming Matloob Baig. Interestingly, in this category are also four painters from Chakwal – Amjad Hussain, Raja Najmul Hasan, Tanvir Kausar Mughal and his son Shehzad Mughal. One landscape is in dry pastels by Islamabad based banker, Omar Waheed, who has become noticeable in a short period of two years. In this category, Shehla Rafi outshines all with her subtle strokes and depth of work. Hanif Shehzad and AQ Arif have painted the cityscapes and it interesting to see Arif taking some experimental steps on paper.
Women remain the focus of many painters in their iconic styles. Hajra Mansur, Abrar Ahmed and Rind focus on eastern aesthetics of elongated necks, long drawn eyes with other romantic symbols like peacock and other birds. Mobina Zuberi captures a thoughtful woman, Wahab Jaffer celebrates with colours in new patterns, Muhammad Ali Bhatti remains skillfully realistic, Ali Abbas dwells with Thar women with decreasingly less colour and increasing empty space, and Iqbal Hussain shows himself painting a woman – an unusual composition from him. A very well done painting in charcoal and oil by the late Mansur Aye on his typical moon-faced women is a collector’s item.
RM Naeem’s ‘To whom it may concern’ from his new series of works titled ‘Today’ and Sana Arjumand’s ‘Annihilation’ are most innovative in dealing with their subject and in treatment of the paintings. Both are outstanding artworks and placed side-by-side without over-shadowing each other.
Omar Farid stands out with his unique psychedelic paintings, while Faten Anjum distinguishes with her boldness. Farrukh Shahab dominates with the size and a new evolving cubical style and Mansur Rahi distinguishes with his cubism. Zarah David’s paintings are surrealistic, while Musarrat Nahid Imam plays with black and silver with peacock feathers, creating style in simplicity, and Aqeel Solangi extends his work with serene and mystic objects.
Abid Hasan from Karachi School of Arts, Faisal Asghar and Aziz Hasan have used three different techniques in creating their abstracts like oxidising of silver leaf, ball-pen and fluorescent acrylics.
During the preview, Dr. Arjumand Faisel the curator of the gallery appeared very excited as he said that it was a big challenge to display such a large variety of work and he is eagerly looking forward to the response of the visitors.
The exhibition will continue till April 15 at House No 19, Street 10, F-8/3 and the gallery will remain open on the weekends to facilitate those who are unable to take out time on work days.