Collage of themes on canvas

Exhibition also includes works of late artists Ustaad Allah Bux, Guljee and Maqbool Hussain.

LAHORE: A collection of artworks prepared by six senior and celebrated artists exploring personal themes is currently being displayed at Unicorn Art Gallery.

Art works of Senaka Senanayake, a Sri Lanka based artist, are mainly inspired by natural foliage and greenery of Sri Lanka. According to the artist, he develops transparent layers of colours over one another using the concept of three dimensions.

“Having an interested in Buddhist philosophy, I begin to encompass the concept of no beginning or end and that everything runs in a circle,” says Senaka

He says that he tries to recreate that concept in his work. He uses a round form to create an aura symbolising the circular as his trade mark.

Though the extent of natural beauty depicted in his paintings may give an impression that the artist has imagined these scenarios, however, according to Sankea, all the foliage and birds painted in his work are real and not a figment of his imagination.



Saneka says that his new series of work is inspired by his concern for dilapidating natural reserves and rain forests. “It is a worldwide issue that is affecting all of us.” He adds, “In SiriLanka alone, 70 per cent of the rain forest has been destroyed, without which there is no rain anymore and a country like ours can never survive in such condition.”

Karachi based self-taught senior artist Moeen Faruqi’s work is inspired by people around him. In his acrylic and oil work on canvas, Moeen has tried to capture alienation present in the society.

According to the artist, his art works are an attempt to explore the phenomenon of people living alone in their cocoons in the midst of changes happening in the world. Moeen depicts men, women and animals to represent estrangement and alienation in society. Lahore based artist Iqbal Hussain’s work is about figurative paintings of women from a particular area.

Through his work, Iqbal captures mundane activities of women. One such work has his subjects sitting together and chatting, sitting quietly in deep thoughts and some simply doing house hold chores.

Iqbal tries to capture the feeling of social cohesiveness and an interactive neighbourhood with in a family unit.

While some of his paintings depict day-to-day activities, others capture depression and sadness at death and despair.

Curated by Seemah Niaz, the exhibition also includes art works of late artists such as Ustaad Allah Bux, Guljee and Maqbool Fida Hussain.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2017.