We all need some soul food

Art exhibit calls for refined understanding of human emotions, relationships and existence

LAHORE: A solo exhibition of artworks by Amira Farooq, titled “Feeding the soul”, explores abstract concepts of body and soul. The bright and colourful display is currently underway at Nairang Art Gallery.

Romessa Khan, the curator of the show, said that Amira’s work could be seen as a complete rejection of a perfect picture. “One can enjoy her brave use of colours. I absolutely love her idea of not making up something for the sake of art,” she says.

She says that it appears that Amira lets the colours find their way in her work and is not submissive to prerequisites or the demands of a canvas.





Amira’s work is an intense dialogue which revolves around the nature of human emotions, relationships and its existence by using bright colours and forms, juxtaposed with elements from nature.

According to Amira, her artistic process begins with simply picking an emotion and describing it by creating visuals.

For Amira, the process of painting is something which she discovered herself. “I have to have music to work; that really helps channel the emotions and focus,” she says.

“I think everything that we do in life is a half chance. When you start making a painting, you intend to do one thing but you discover many other things during the process and all of a sudden you see something on the canvas that you had not intended to create before. That is why there is an element of chance in almost all creative processes,” she explains.

She says that Michelangelo, Vincent Van Gogh and Salvador Dali have been the influences in her artistic career.

“One could look at my work and say it’s not as skilled as it is expected to be, but that is exactly my point. I try to create a stylised version of reality that looks simple from a distance and even childlike to some extent,” she adds.



At a second glance, the concept is not childlike at all, she adds. The paradox I like to play with my work is to keep visuals simple and out of the box, she says.



Amira Farooq was born and bred in Lahore. She was trained at the National College of Arts (NCA) and received her degree in Fine Arts in the department of printmaking in 2004. Since 2006, she has been working as a full time Visual Artist.

The Exhibition will conclude on November 15th, 2017.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2017.