Three young artists aim for something deeper in their works

The exhibition, running at the Rohtas Gallery, will continue until January 31.

ISLAMABAD:

A group show of three fresh visual artists opened at the Rohtas Art Gallery on Thursday. “Three is a crowd” features Heraa Khan, Sahyr Saeed and Maha Ahmed, all from Lahore.

The opening had a healthy attendance of young artists, there to show support for their contemporaries.

Heraa’s nine pieces are the first to catch eye as one enters the exhibit area. A miniature artist who graduated last year from the National College of Arts in Lahore, she seeks to portray a lifestyle where objects and materials become part of one’s identity. Pink dominates her colour palette and her grandmother serves as her muse.

“But even though I have depicted my grandmother [in the paintings], the works are not really about her. She’s in the paintings because I see her often and I noticed how social she is with her friends circle,” said Heraa.

The designer bags, opulent chandelier and the golden armchair are all objects that signify class and luxury, but they are also frivolous. Heraa drives home this point by putting her laughing grandmother in the scenes. “I usually depict a lot of laughter in my work. It’s a sign of vulnerability I believe,” she added.

Maha Ahmed goes into the unconventional as she plays with space on her canvas. “I have tried to capture the ambiguity and space with my watercolours.”

Her larger piece plays with water and land, with a bird-fish hybrid flying over the sea waves.

“As an artists I feel I have the liberty to not always depict the obvious; why not play with the imagination instead?”

Another intriguing piece of hers is a small white canvas with a white bird subtly depicted — so subtle that one has to come really close to the painting to notice the bird.

Sahyr’s forte is minuscule installations.

Fascinated by the little things, Sahyr makes her pieces with collections of important tiny items that are otherwise looked over in a house. Take for instance the little golden safety pins stacked together, or tiny white linens neatly folded with a small brush lying next to them.

For Sahyr her work
helps her escape to that perfect home that she once dreamt of.

About six years ago, she made a structure out of Styrofoam that faintly resembled a double storey house and began what she calls “the dollhouse project”.

“I made and collected many miniatures for it; however it was not until I started training in traditional miniature painting that I began to look at this activity as more than just a hobby.”

The exhibition continues till January 31.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2013.