Aesthetics: Regional artists get local exposure
An exhibition featuring art from Bangladesh and other South Asian artists opens at Khaas.
ISLAMABAD:
An exhibition featuring a panorama of Bangladeshi and other South Asian artworks opened at Khaas Art Gallery on Thursday.
The exhibition, titled “Revisiting South Asian Art” is an “eclectic collection of works by South Asian artists,” according to the gallery’s Assistant Curator Alia Bilgrami.
Bilgrami was of the opinion that people and art lovers in Pakistan were underexposed to the style and scope of the paintings featured in the exhibition. Works by Syam Lal, Mohammad Eunus, Syed Jahangir, Jamal Ahmed, Nasreen Begum, Rebeka Sultana, Shakoor Shah and Rezaun Nabi are being featured at the gallery.
“Actually the artists aren’t here. The works are from Abbass Zaidi’s own collection. He is selling them here because he wants to expose the art market here to their work,” added Bilgrami.
Guests, with samosas in their hand (courtesy of the gallery), and photographers alike were attracted to pieces by Eunus, Sultana and Ahmed.
“I know him (Eunus) personally,” said Zaidi referring to Eunus’s Winter, which he described as “an abstract rendering of a bleak setting”.
Zaidi said, “[Eunus] does a lot of abstract landscapes with a focus on decay-- the decay of heritage [and the] loss of heritage.”
Sultana, Zaidi added, is a big fan of textiles and does a lot of fancy faces of women.
Of all the artists, Jamal Ahmed’s work, portraying a woman completely confident in her curvaceous figure and exposing flesh, was the most confident. Zaida said the close relationship between art and “dubious women” was the hallmark of Ahmed’s work. The dubiousness makes for incredible art, he added.
Expressing his approval, the Bangladeshi High Commissioner Sohrab Hos said, “This exhibition definitely exposes people to my country and its fine art.
This sort of cultural relationship works very well.” The exhibition is set to continue till May 21.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 13th, 2011.
An exhibition featuring a panorama of Bangladeshi and other South Asian artworks opened at Khaas Art Gallery on Thursday.
The exhibition, titled “Revisiting South Asian Art” is an “eclectic collection of works by South Asian artists,” according to the gallery’s Assistant Curator Alia Bilgrami.
Bilgrami was of the opinion that people and art lovers in Pakistan were underexposed to the style and scope of the paintings featured in the exhibition. Works by Syam Lal, Mohammad Eunus, Syed Jahangir, Jamal Ahmed, Nasreen Begum, Rebeka Sultana, Shakoor Shah and Rezaun Nabi are being featured at the gallery.
“Actually the artists aren’t here. The works are from Abbass Zaidi’s own collection. He is selling them here because he wants to expose the art market here to their work,” added Bilgrami.
Guests, with samosas in their hand (courtesy of the gallery), and photographers alike were attracted to pieces by Eunus, Sultana and Ahmed.
“I know him (Eunus) personally,” said Zaidi referring to Eunus’s Winter, which he described as “an abstract rendering of a bleak setting”.
Zaidi said, “[Eunus] does a lot of abstract landscapes with a focus on decay-- the decay of heritage [and the] loss of heritage.”
Sultana, Zaidi added, is a big fan of textiles and does a lot of fancy faces of women.
Of all the artists, Jamal Ahmed’s work, portraying a woman completely confident in her curvaceous figure and exposing flesh, was the most confident. Zaida said the close relationship between art and “dubious women” was the hallmark of Ahmed’s work. The dubiousness makes for incredible art, he added.
Expressing his approval, the Bangladeshi High Commissioner Sohrab Hos said, “This exhibition definitely exposes people to my country and its fine art.
This sort of cultural relationship works very well.” The exhibition is set to continue till May 21.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 13th, 2011.