ISLAMABAD: For its summer art show, the Nomad Art Gallery showcased the work of four painters, each bringing a new dimension to the mix.

The show draws its strength from including the work of senior artist Mashkoor Raza. An established master of figurative abstract, he is known for his paintings of horses and women.

His most recent accolade was the Presidential Pride of Performance Award and has been featured in hundreds of solo and group shows nationally and internationally.

This new exhibition reflects his fascination for solar and lunar eclipses. He creates transparency with basic forms of the square, circle and triangle.

Next to Raza’s works were the detailed paintings by Samina Ali whose work delicately weaves together various features of Islamic art. She manages to incorporate Persian and Arabic text with portraits of Mughal kings and queens like a seasoned miniaturist of the classical era, but remaining contemporary.

“To remain in touch with the past means to keep history alive, images lost in time can resonate in the vibrant colours and textures of paint,” she said to her visitors at the show.

To Ali, the hardest thing for a painter to accomplish is developing a unique pictorial language which conveys their personal way of seeing things.

“I hope to stress and highlight the objective quality and aesthetic autonomy of a work,” she said.

Ubaid Syed who now lives and works in Sweden, studied Fine Art at the Karachi School of Arts. His subject is nature and his paintings capturing the verdant Swedish landscapes. He works with acrylic on canvas and works like an illusionist creating depth of field on the canvas. An impressionist painter, he uses bold colours, filling his canvas with metaphor and emotion.

The group show also featured the work by Tayyaba Aziz, who described herself as a figurative, abstract expressionist and analytical cubist. Painting with oil on canvas, she experiments with analytical cubism, bringing expression and life to the canvas.

“I use thin layers of colour over human figures to make them free and floatable. I activate the space on my canvas with overlapping colours, tones and patterns which I hope will activate the imagination of the viewer,” she said.

The artist said that the prevalent culture in our society teaches us to hold back on our emotions and conceal them from those around us.

“I believe that emotions should be expressed more regularly and freely. Colours play an extremely important role in my paintings. I use it to create feeling and my work is my expression,” she said.

The show will run until July 10.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2015

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