Art exhibition: Making ‘bad’ look good

Uzma Sultan displays her work inspired by fantasy and pop art.

Influenced by the works of Matisse and Picasso, Uzma Sultan’s work incorporates the genre of still life painting. Her exhibition called “Life room” is being shown at the Koel gallery from April 28 till May 14 (today).

Explaining her style she says, “My work is an act of looking. I do not sketch and just let the paint guide me.” She says the paint is applied straight from the tube and is at times clumsy and allowed to drip.

Dividing her time between London and Karachi, Sultan says art is a reflection of the time we live in. “It is about glamourising everything. My work has ideas of fantasy, depicting a bygone era - whether it’s a room in a museum or from a lifestyle magazine - and has references from pop art to bad painting,” she explains. The concept of bad painting was first introduced in New York in the 1970s when artists such as Martin Kippenberger and Francis Picabia were of the mindset that the idea of good and bad is flexible and subject to the interpretation of the spectator at that particular time.

The paintings have been made using photographs which Sultan takes herself or from magazines. She reproduces scenes from all over the world - from Abdullah Shah Ghazi Mazar, to a palace near Delhi, to the pavilion in Istanbul. There are some paintings in the exhibit that have been inspired by Karachi weddings as well. “At my cousin’s wedding, not so long ago, I found the reflection of the tent in the pond and was fascinated by it.”

And that is not all that is reflective of Karachi in her work. Sultan mostly paints on vinyl which she buys especially from Bolton Market.

While Sultan’s work is interesting and definitely attractive, it is not everyone’s cup of tea. “The colours were bright and caught my eye. But even though it was interesting, I wouldn’t keep it in my house,” said a spectator, Sundus, at the gallery.

But Sultan is prepared for these kinds of reactions. She knows that there is an expectation of visual art to be immediately understandable. “My paintings are visually ambiguous… I want people to go beyond what is at first readable,” she claims. When asked about her future plans, Sultan says she’s thinking about taking her work to Lahore next.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2011.