KARACHI: It is evident from the paintings put up by Abid Khalil and Arsalan Naqvi at an exhibition, which is under way at the Spaces gallery, that their artworks are social commentaries of sorts. There is a lot going on in our country and it’s not always a happy story. That’s the point what the two-person show tries to put across.

All of Abid Khalil’s acrylic-on-canvas artworks are titled ‘Wall Noise’. These are not the walls that need to be broken through, but the kind of walls that line our cities and are used for effusive sloganeering.

The artist doesn’t make the words readily readable, and rightly so. He knows that the viewer is aware of what he (Khalil) is driving at. It’s the noise that comes out of the painted sentences which are not always clearly audible.

Arsalan Naqvi keeps things basic in terms of issues. His ‘Hungry’ (acrylic on canvas) series is a reminder to all of us of the kind of inconsiderate society we’ve become. Naqvi, however, doesn’t evoke sympathy for his characters; rather, he tries to make the viewer understand their plight. For that, he employs realism that tells the story in a linear way, without any embellishments. Here ‘Black and White’ can be cited as an example.

The exhibition will be open till May 18.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2014.