LAHORE – Ejaz Art Gallery on February 3 opened to ‘Silsila’, a show of Studio RM Alumni. The exhibition showcased some of the biggest names in the present art scene who also are art educationists in one way or the other. A staggering number of twenty-seven works were exhibited, created by twenty artists; from the mentors to the most recent ones to enter the humble abodes of their predecessors.
Mudassar Manzoor is a miniature painter whose medium is gouache on wasli, with gold and silver leaf thrown into the mix. The generated works are not only rich and equipoise, but are narration wise strong as well. ‘Confrontation’ and ‘Conversion’ are two of Mudassar’s works, which as the names suggest, ponder upon subtle introspection and intrigue.
An unorthodox use of acrylic and pigments on wasli results in interesting pieces of work, in Irfan Gul’s ‘Dreamers’ and ‘Dreamers II’. Dark, mushy, with exaggerated forms of the human body, his work gives of a nostalgic vibe that at some deeper level might or might not be painful. As the colours here absorb the viewer and rather vice versa, these two works are grim and real.
Irfan Hassan’s ‘Alarm’ is a sight to behold. With skill that is captivating, Irfan juxtaposes the traditional Dholchi, with elements from his own aesthetic vocabulary, to create this profound, and would not be wrong to say, alarming piece of work. Mohammad Zeeshan, on the other side, uses graphite on sand paper, to create and an image that is not only profound, but reflecting the artist’s connotation on the subject of extinction of miniature as an art form.
While Nazia Gull’s ‘Bliss’ and ‘Confront’ are both contemporary miniature paintings in nature, Hira Mansoor and her work with sewing machines, animal forms and patterns is once again revisited in her ‘Obscure Existence’. Mutaib shah and Naveed Sadiq both work in the miniature body of work, while Mutaib’s work titled ‘Sacrifice’ is highly skilled, Naveed equally talented yet monstrously introspective.
‘Guftugu’ looks at the self and the world, and their amalgamation using his self-portraits and traditional Mughal references. Adeel-uz-Zafar and Saba Khan are two individuals whose works are not only a crowd puller, but also a very frank and hesitation-less point of view towards things. Saba Khan’s ‘Khushhali’ is a fabric installation, created using threads, sequins and plastic butterflies on cloth, the centralized UPS leaves no space for further dialog on the subjectivity.
Adeel engraves on vinyl to create an image of a gorilla heavily wrapped in bandage. ‘KONG-the tragic Antihero’ as title claims, leaves the viewer in a visual adrenaline rush, which is somewhat ironic too. The axis powers of the show, Amra Khan, Sana Arjumand and Kakul Kamran deliver work that is eye-teasing, interrogative, skilfully achieved and one way or the other leaving the viewer in utter amazement.
Whether it is Kakul and Sana’s extensive level of detailing or Amra’s ink, tea, coffee figurines interloping each other, one is bound to see through all of these again an again. These are some of the works that need continued reviewing in order to be fully gulped. Ali Kazim weaves his imagery using pigments on paper, while Faisal Ashgar’s ballpoint-on-paper works are a fresh approach in figurative, or else something that is not mostly found these days. His strokes are quite fantastic to look at, as the images which results from their amalgamation.
Asif Sharif and Naseer Bhurgri’s works are the type that with the most simplistic approach towards a thing yet delivers strong and intimidating perspective towards them. Sadaf Naeem’s oil on canvas paintings ‘Dream’ and ‘Shaded’ are flowing with colour, vibrancy, and a zeal for nostalgic thinking. Aakif Suri’s work in gouache on wasli titled ‘Main or Aakif’, is the somewhat symbolic of continuous struggle and contractions of self.
Although, the mediums are strictly traditional, his works remains quite graphic; the usage of huge splatters of colours and an individual figure struggling out of it seems not only appropriate but also reminds one of art retro comics and posters, where the protagonist often struggles with some evil force. It is much like Aakif’s rendition of himself battling his other.
‘Pakistan Today’ are two works of the person responsible behind Residency RM, RM Naeem, art teacher, painter and patron to many of the artists at display here. Naeem’s work is full of vigor, in-your-face imagery, colour contrasting and above all realistic and aesthetically semblance.
Not only progressively strong in the subjectivity, his view point of the current political, social and religious upheaval is not only established in his work but also magnetized towards the viewer.
The writer is a student of the National College of Arts and uses a pseudonym.
