Young artist Soraya Sikander is a go-getter and focused on being recognised as a significant painter. I recall viewing her prolific output of paintings at Lahore’s Alhamra Art Gallery in 2014, where she had displayed an eclectic collection of artworks. Conventional subject matter such as landscapes, still life, and flowers had been given both a personal as well as socio-political connotation, with colour being the vehicle to convey emotions. I remember she said that she painted flowers as “a symbol of peace” and would continue painting these “till peace returned to our country.”

Now three years later, one has had the opportunity to view her new work at Lahore’s Unicorn Gallery. Titled “Inscape”, it is a small collection of landscapes and renderings of flora and fauna. The artist claims to be more interested in “quality rather than quantity”, and this is her stated reason for displaying a few works, a total of 13 small to medium-sized oil paintings. Sikander’s emotive landscapes — comprising a set of five works are the strongest pieces — both in terms of aesthetics and the ability to evoke a deep response. There is an aura of desolation created by the dark hues that is nonetheless tempered by bright colours which are used in a variety of ways.

Sikander narrated how the landscape of Karachi has been her muse for these works, and while there is an element of despair and pensiveness, optimism still finds its way. Her personal favourite is ‘Mangroves’ — a canvas in shades of blue and black and heavily textured by layers of thick blobs of paint. While tree forms in black feature in this and also in the other canvases, the vertical lines formed by paint drippings in ‘Sunset’ and ‘Horizon’ have a unique aesthetic appeal. Coupled with rich hues of pink and purple, offset by darker shades of the same, these two canvases stand out in terms of maturity and depth as does ‘Mangroves.’ Bright hues of yellow and green emerge in “Sunset,” which is an upbeat ‘inscape,’ despite the black tree looming in the foreground. The splattering of multi-coloured blobs adds to the more optimistic discourse in this canvas.

The aesthetics inherent in landscapes and flowers are used to create a personal and social narrative in Soraya Sikander’s work

Images of flowers form a set of five works in bright hues that emerge as medallion-like pieces because of the way they are framed. The flowers, all fitted into a circular framework are pattern-like, bordering on realism in some of the works. These renderings have an element of prosaic straight forwardness, almost amateurish in style and effect.

Sikander is obviously keen to make her mark as a serious painter. She mixes the aesthetics inherent in nature, with socio-political concerns, through moods created by subjective use of line, colour and texture. She has winsome manners and the drive and means to succeed. Lasting success, however,

has no shortcuts and constant practice and critical self -valuation will indeed be the surest step to take her further ahead as an artist.

Inscape — an exhibition of oil paintings by Soraya Sikander was held at Unicorn Art Gallery, Lahore, from 28 February to March 8, 2017

Published in Dawn, EOS, March 26th, 2017