KARACHI: In terms of Nahid Raza’s work, change really is the only constant. Even her severest critic cannot accuse her of stagnation. When an art collector recently asked her to do a panel for him in her old style, she told him to choose a panel she had done a couple of years ago for she was not willing to look back – despite the fact that she was offered a handsome sum.
The Pride of Performance winning artist has the innate ability to reinvent herself. Not one to rest on her laurels, she works with demonic energy. Some of the paintings she completed in the past seven months are on display at the Canvas Art Gallery and this time, her palette is more varied and certainly brighter. There is greater distortion, which makes her art more abstract. The texture is more pronounced and has a sculptural quality to it.
Woman remains Nahid Raza’s main subject. Man did appear in her paintings two years ago but soon he was shown the door. This time, though, the woman in her compositions is not solitary – Nahid paints her in company. “Why should they not be together, when their experiences are common? You can see a sense of sisterhood among them,” explains the artist while clouds, dark and laden with rain, hover over the heads of her women.
The paintings currently on display are distinguished from her earlier works by the presence of multiple compositions within a composition, frames within a frame. One feels that this time, the artist has concentrated on technique rather than on theme.
Her medium is acrylic and for the exhibition at Canvas, which will continue until September 6, she has worked on handmade paper imported from France. The exhibition should not be missed by anyone interested in seeing Nahid Raza in her new avatar.
KARACHI: In terms of Nahid Raza’s work, change really is the only constant. Even her severest critic cannot accuse her of stagnation. When an art collector recently asked her to do a panel for him in her old style, she told him to choose a panel she had done a couple of years ago for she was not willing to look back – despite the fact that she was offered a handsome sum.
