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Now
entering a new year, we anticipate the pleasure of discovering
new artists and admiring those that are established. In 2009,
in spite of the disturbed atmosphere, exciting art exhibitions
continued to be shown in hard working galleries. New galleries
opened with optimism and the work of several graduate art
students boded well for the future, in fact, the art scene
was a kaleidoscopic world of brilliant colour and views.
To highlight a few from the numerous art displays that took
place is extremely difficult, but here are some images that
made deep impressions. The year began with an exhibition of
drawings and paintings by Jamil Naqsh, an event that lasted
just one evening but drew a large audience of enthusiasts
to view Naqsh’s work in the ‘Homage to Picasso’
series. A collection from the same series made a tremendous
impact in New Delhi. It appears that foreign audiences show
an appreciation of their senior artists that is sadly lacking
in some quarters closer to home, yet Naqsh continues supreme
and is planning another exhibition in Karachi in the coming
months. The work, previewed in London, oil on canvas, is superb.
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Among
younger artist, Qamar Siddiqui emerged as a force to be reckoned
with. One may say he was ‘discovered’ by art connoisseurs
in U.A.E. before making an impact at home. An exhibition of
his work, held at Chawkandi Art, was received by media and
public as a breath of bold, fresh air.
An exhibition by the artistically gifted brothers from Nushki,
Akram Dost, with a collection of carved wood panels, and drawings
by Jamil Baloch, witnessed once more the dynamic talents of
the two.
Extraordinary exhibitions that took place recently turned
the art scene around; after an extended period of the doldrums,
these were exhibitions with collectors competing to acquire
works by R.M.Naeem seen at Koel Gallery and Ali Azmat who
showed his new, riveting work at Canvas gallery.
In perhaps his strongest, most cohesive work to date, titled,
‘Faith Soul Search’, R.M.Naeem created a sequence
of multi-layered images, encompassing metaphysical, political
and material issues. The artist’s subjects were surreal
beings, seemingly detached from the chaos around them. Elements
of landscape added to the symbolic message. R.M.Naeem’s
references are drawn from classic art traditions, skillfully
fused with contemporary aesthetics.
In his latest work, recently shown in London, the successful
young painter of solitary females, Ali Azmat, has cast aside
his previous symbolic beauties identifying social issues,
to examine the world of the ‘outsider’ the creatures
of uncertain gender. The artist related, that his challenge
as a painter has been to “capture both male and female
characteristics in one person”. In the exhibition titled:
‘Moorat’, Azmat intensifies his images with smaller
scaled paintings, densely textured and enhanced by a dazzling
palette. In his work, the subjects are treated as human beings
with feelings of love and tenderness, he has cast aside the
overdone dramatics of their daily armour and allowed the real
people to emerge. A Tour De Force of an exhibition, one that
will be remembered for a long time to come. |
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