ISLAMABAD: A unique exhibition will open on Wednesday at Gallery 6 titled ‘Usual Unusual’. The exhibition features six recognised artists, presenting pieces that differ from their usual iconic styles. The participating artists are Abid Hasan, Abrar Ahmed, Akram Spaul, Mohammad Ali Bhatti and Rind.

Rind is associated with sensual depictions of women wearing bright colours and ethnic jewellery. Viewers also find the hues, motifs and moods of his native Rahim Yar Khan in his paintings as well as poetry by Faiz. However, in this exhibition, Rind surprises visitors by presenting a painting of an abstract face in bold strokes and colours that differ from his usual palate. The face depicted is not even particularly feminine. The painting marks the beginning of a new series by the artist where he is communicating emotions with a new vocabulary.

Paintings in Abrar Ahmed’s usual style are an ode to romance and the sensual beauty of the female form created using spontaneous strokes. The imagery harkens to the earlier traditional miniaturists who depicted stylised images of women with elongated necks, expressive eyes and delicate hands.

Six leading artists exhibit paintings deviating from their usual style

Birds, jewellery, flowers and the moon are additional adorning features that Abrar Ahmed incorporates into his pieces.

In this exhibition, in addition to two paintings in his iconic style, visitors come across pieces that deviate from the artist’s usual style. Here the adorned women have been replaced by forlorn faces, instead of bright tones there are sombre shades of brown and rather than using his usual spontaneous bold strokes the artist employs intricate designs in fine black lines.

Masood A Khan’s paintings are known to art lovers for the unique way in which he depicts scenes. Whether depicting a scene from a village, a city or still life, he visualises and accurately captures in faint colours what lies behind material barriers.

The viewers get the feeling of having x-ray vision that can penetrate through walls of cement or wood, masterfully created by the artist using transparent washes of water colour, acrylic paint and ink and charcoal.

Among five works in his usual style, in this exhibition, we see a piece by him employing a new medium-grout, a mixture of sand, water, cement, gravel and colours used in masonry.

The artist uses grout to create what looks like a painted three dimensional rock, maintaining the effect of transparency he is revered for.

Akram Spaul is a realist painter known for the accuracy and detail with which he makes his paintings look like photographs. He usually portrays scenes from ordinary lives, painting mundane objects bringing attention to their beauty usually ignored.

His oil paintings will always show a piece of furniture, a door, a window or clothes on line - ordinary things that become extraordinary when recreated in Spaul’s brushstrokes. In this exhibition, the well known artist has moved beyond these objects to landscapes as well. A striking piece is one that portrays Pakistan’s green flags fluttering in the wind, against a bright blue sky.

Portrait painting has been the first passion of Mohammad Ali Bhatti, who has always been fascinated by the inner world of his subjects. He enjoyed creating subtleties in dynamic compositions, synchronising colour tones and textures. He converted simple expressions into complex by striving to define and attain the values of the background, the shadow shapes, the darks, the lights, and transitional tones.

He is known for employing minimal strokes of his brush. However, the two paintings in this show use dancing and twisting bold brushstrokes. One painting expresses joy and festivity which the other seems to depict protest.

Abid Hasan plays with effect of chemicals on silver and gold leaf applied on canvas which is a laborious, multi-stage technique. The result is scintillating pieces that are nothing short of visual statements. His work is reflective of his imaginative intelligence and skilful ability to execute this. In this exhibition the artist is also presenting paintings that employ mix-media. There are faces incorporated into abstract symbols in bright hues.

Commenting on the exhibition, Dr Arjumand Faisel, curator of gallery6, said: “These six leading artists have iconic styles that are very popular in the art market. This unique exhibition presents their paintings in their usual styles along with those that most of art lovers are less likely to have seen before. I found these paintings in their studios, and found them to be absorbing and powerful compositions.”

The exhibition will continue till November 2.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014