‘My work focuses on a place of hope between dreams and reality’

Paintings by Tabinda Chinoy and four other artists on display at Majmua Art Gallery.

KARACHI: “The situation in Karachi is so bad that it makes you feel like the world is an ugly place. This is why I don’t paint reality.” This is how an eminent artist, Tabinda Chinoy, explained the inspiration behind her work to The Express Tribune. “My work focuses on a place of hope between dreams and reality.” 

Her paintings along with those of four other female artists - Nahid Raza, Qudsia Nisar, Muna Siddiqui and Faiza - are on display at the exhibition, Celebrating Women Artists of Karachi, which opened at the Majmua Art Gallery on Saturday.

Chinoy, who studied art at the Slade School of Fine Arts, London, also launched a book about her experiences as an artist, Between Dreams and Reality, at the Indus Valley School of Art on Wednesday.



The owner of the art gallery, Mehreen Ilahi, explained that the exhibition was a celebration of the work of female artists. “Most of these artists have been painting for a while now,” she said, adding that Faiza, the youngest of the five artists whose work was on display, had been painting since she was 11 years old.

Another artist, Raza, said that her work was themed on the cycle of life. “It says that life goes on even though there is the continuous presence of death in the background,” she said, adding that she had used a lot of floral designs in her work. Three of her paintings are on display at the exhibition which continues till May 15.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2013.