‘Being’ in: Art Liminal spaces, visualised

Ayessha Quraishi’s rendition of being and nothingness in oil displays at Khaas Art Gallery.

ISLAMABAD:

Less is certainly more when it comes to “Liminal”, an exhibition of paintings by Ayessha Quraishi that opened at the Khaas Art Gallery on Tuesday. Comprising a few pieces which follow a unified theme, the exhibit comes together in a lyrical manner.

The exhibit itself is a visual trip into dimensions created by vertical lines and colour blocking, creating an essence of abstract art. The oil-on-paper paintings exude an almost ethereal feel; the smooth surfaces reveal the artist’s skill and command over the technique. Varying tones of black, white and grey lend a minimalist effect, as do the intertwined shades of coral, green and red.

The self-taught artist describes “Liminal” as the rapture of trembling diaphanous blue light melting upon the tongue of night; it is the subtle veil between the visible and the invisible, inner and outer, feeling and thought, past and present, self and other. “Liminal inhabits a space at once interior and exterior- it is the window looking out and the window looking in. It is a state of being that, dissolving all previous knowing, stands upon the threshold of becoming,” read the artist’s statement etched on a gallery wall. According to her, the work employs gestural mark making often integrating drawing, painting and digital mediums to explore the meditative nature of artistic practice.

Alia Bilgrami, the gallery curator, said the artist’s work boasts quality. “Initially, we (the gallery members and the artist) had a hard time deciding how to display the pieces because there were so many of them. One of us suggested that putting up fewer pieces would create more impact in this kind of work,” she added.

Quraishi has been painting for about two decades. She has displayed her work across the country in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad as well as internationally in Toronto, London, Avignon, Freiberg and Moscow. She has also participated in the Izmir Biennial, Turkey in 2011 and most recently in the Hic-2 Workshop, Turgutreis, the October Passage 12, Canakkle and the Bodrum Biennial, Turkey this year.

The exhibition will continue until December 31.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2013.