Art scene: New gallery, new talent
Alckemy Art Gallery’s inaugural show features six young artists’ work.
Syed Shah Abdullah Alamee / Muhammad Shahid
LAHORE:
The latest addition to the city’s art galleries, Alckemy Art Gallery, opened its doors to the public on February 15 with a show that features works by recent National College of Arts graduates.
The gallery is a venture by Dr Yasmeen Anwer, a dermatologist, to utilise “the space in her clinic to promote art” says Hassan Suhrawardy, the gallery manager.
The inaugural show, Convergence, features the work of six young artists. Among them is Sasha Farooq, who graduated this year.
One of her works is an installation titled Mockery, in which Farooq has used ‘elements’ of machinery and technology to create leaves, branches and tree trunk. “I want to project the modern man’s obsession with technology and [to show] how far he has come from nature,” she says.
Farooq, who majored in textile design, used the ada technique to put the wires together, which she says “added to the texture” of her work.
She has seven pieces on display that are priced between Rs10,000 and Rs175,000.
One of Rajab Ali Sayed’s – who graduated this year in fine arts with a distinction – artworks, In the Ruins of Us, illustrates implications of exposure to television.
A three-painting series titled Elephant in the Room is about personal spaces.
“Sometimes people are in the same room and yet in their own worlds. [They] are not [aware of] the inner turmoil of others,” he describes.
Syed Shah Abdullah Alamee, who is from Quetta and now plans to settle in Lahore, has displayed pieces based on “self-exploration”. “It is our only character and goodness towards others that we leave behind,” he says of a painting, Showing his Soul.
One of his pieces, in which you can see a hand coming out of an ocean being struck by lightening, is inspired by Allama Iqbal’s poetry. “It sits in well with contemporary times… that we as a nation need to work towards a better country,” says the Hazara artist.
He has three pieces on display.
Muhammad Shahid’s work features subjects that “constantly change form” like the ocean, whose “water evaporates and turns into clouds and rain”, ice cubes and buildings that “change over time”.
One of his pieces shows buildings with texture similar to “folds of cloth” against a desert backdrop.
“It is my comment on traditional miniature painting,” says the artist, who has used gouache (an opaque water colour) on wasli paper for all his works.
Shahid has priced his works between Rs35,000 and Rs60,000.
Once the exhibition ends on February 21, the artists will be taking the pieces to other galleries across the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 19th, 2013.
The latest addition to the city’s art galleries, Alckemy Art Gallery, opened its doors to the public on February 15 with a show that features works by recent National College of Arts graduates.
The gallery is a venture by Dr Yasmeen Anwer, a dermatologist, to utilise “the space in her clinic to promote art” says Hassan Suhrawardy, the gallery manager.
The inaugural show, Convergence, features the work of six young artists. Among them is Sasha Farooq, who graduated this year.
One of her works is an installation titled Mockery, in which Farooq has used ‘elements’ of machinery and technology to create leaves, branches and tree trunk. “I want to project the modern man’s obsession with technology and [to show] how far he has come from nature,” she says.
Farooq, who majored in textile design, used the ada technique to put the wires together, which she says “added to the texture” of her work.
She has seven pieces on display that are priced between Rs10,000 and Rs175,000.
One of Rajab Ali Sayed’s – who graduated this year in fine arts with a distinction – artworks, In the Ruins of Us, illustrates implications of exposure to television.
A three-painting series titled Elephant in the Room is about personal spaces.
“Sometimes people are in the same room and yet in their own worlds. [They] are not [aware of] the inner turmoil of others,” he describes.
Syed Shah Abdullah Alamee, who is from Quetta and now plans to settle in Lahore, has displayed pieces based on “self-exploration”. “It is our only character and goodness towards others that we leave behind,” he says of a painting, Showing his Soul.
One of his pieces, in which you can see a hand coming out of an ocean being struck by lightening, is inspired by Allama Iqbal’s poetry. “It sits in well with contemporary times… that we as a nation need to work towards a better country,” says the Hazara artist.
He has three pieces on display.
Muhammad Shahid’s work features subjects that “constantly change form” like the ocean, whose “water evaporates and turns into clouds and rain”, ice cubes and buildings that “change over time”.
One of his pieces shows buildings with texture similar to “folds of cloth” against a desert backdrop.
“It is my comment on traditional miniature painting,” says the artist, who has used gouache (an opaque water colour) on wasli paper for all his works.
Shahid has priced his works between Rs35,000 and Rs60,000.
Once the exhibition ends on February 21, the artists will be taking the pieces to other galleries across the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 19th, 2013.