ISLAMABAD, April 26: Joy and cheers fuelled the evening at the opening of the new Tanzara Gallery that hosted its first exhibition by one of Pakistan’s most celebrated artists, Raja Changez Sultan, on Thursday.

The supercharged atmosphere studded with the city’s whose who, was an exciting moment in the otherwise dormant art scene.

“Something special has happened in the capital city. We have a fantastic new art gallery,” well-known artist Najjamul Hassan said.

The new art gallery, which has created a buzz of its own, would host works of both established artists and new talents, expanding the range of possibilities for local shows and embracing a burgeoning local art scene powered by younger artists and the old and new generations of art fans.

“The goal is to display quality art - the less inviting and tougher to grasp creations,” said the gallery’s owner, Noshi Qadir.

Noshi said the name of the gallery was a combination of first few letters of the names of her daughters, Tanya and Zara.

And as she warmly welcomed her high profile guests like pop singer Ali Azmat and artist Mobina Zuberi, Noshi appreciated the support from the versatile painter and poet, Raja Changez Sultan, whose fabulous 40 artworks on large canvases graded the walls of the gallery.

In this exhibition, Changez Sultan engages and expands the sensual experience of viewing oil paintings through innovative manipulation of colours.

Sultan has displayed his two series — the epic Himalayan Odyssey series and the Divided Self — and his charcoal drawings, an exciting and audacious investigation into the properties of form eschewing colour.

The dazzling light-centred mysticism that reflects the Himalayan mountain range, sources the celebrated Himalayan Odyssey. A series in which he appeared to encapsulate light and suggest that beyond the mountains one would discover the legendary Shangri La.