ISLAMABAD: Susanne Husemann offers another glimpse into her own perspective of life through her paintings which opened at Nomad Art Gallery on Thursday.

Director Nomad Art Gallery Nageen Hayat said Susanne Husemann’s paintings were an insightful, sensitive and hard-hitting collection.

“She probes beneath the surface and creates her own powerful visuals regarding this volatile and historically rich region where the artist has been living for some time now,” said the curator of the show while commenting on the artist’s second show with Nomad Gallery.

The German painter, who has exhibited her works in Scotland, Poland, USA and China, has been living in Pakistan for about a year now.

Susanne Husemann is fond of painting nature and landscapes as much as she likes painting portraits. Her paintings titled The Three Witches, Bride and Girl With Dead Bird are some of the 22 paintings hung on the walls which range between Rs70,000 and Rs180,000.

In this new exhibition titled Lost Life, Susanne shows pictures from different series on home.

The first series of My Family focuses on the burka, a garment for women, which results in both interest and misunderstanding around the world.

Most important in this series is the picture Blue Burka Band which pictures an Afghan girl band that sings critical songs about the burka. The other series are related to Germany and home in a historical context.

On the opening day, Susanne Husemann, who studied art at University of Berlin, said it hurt to read and watch news of subjugation of women, particularly in Afghanistan.

In her paintings, she also compared young brides with dead sparrows.

“It makes me sad that girls in the tribal areas of Pakistan, as young as seven and eight, are married off to men much older when they (girls) want to go to school and make something better out of their lives,” said Susanne Husemann.

Similarly, the abstract landscapes of K2 and Skardu are more than just pretty images of nature. The wall symbolises the restrictions the artist feels in moving around freely.

“I wish I could go to these places. I wish I could travel to Peshawar and especially get in the car and drive all the way down to Karachi by road,” the German artist said, adding that she planned to visit Northern Areas at least once before going back home next summer.

She said the general impression of hostility across the country had stopped her from visiting different cities of Pakistan even though she believed it was a beautiful country.

The show was inaugurated by the Ambassador of Germany to Pakistan Cyrill Nunn, and will continue till February 9.