LAHORE: An exhibition of artworks based on lush landscape of South Asia by Italian painter Maurizio Boscheri will open at Royaat Art Gallery 21 on Wednesday.

Boscheri, a self-taught artist, has his works displayed in American, Asian, and European collections.

Boscheri, who has held exhibitions around the world, draws his inspiration from the tropical, lush landscape of South Asia. The artist’s work is not only a testament to the wonder of nature, but also reflects a transcendent beauty, one that extends the limits of man’s imagination.

Among his artworks, particularly, the most striking is his depiction of the Princess Stephanie’s Astrapia Bird.

“He casts its spectacular plums in the same transcendent glow as angel wings,” says Faryal Haris, the curator of the exhibition.

“Instead of depicting the bird in the backdrop of the horizon, he paints it against a resplendent green, buzzing with the most fantastical forms and symbols of life, some that are airborne and others that may very well swim in the primordial ocean depths. His ability to merge environments is what allows him to depict nature not as we see with our natural eye but instead through our mind’s eye.”

She says Boscheri’s artworks often depict a creature that has captured the human imagination, a marvel of evolution and the fastest land mammal in the world, the cheetah. By placing him in a magical realm, the artist seeks to restore the mystique and awe of nature, a relationship that we have lost with the increasing encroachment of humans on nature and the commercial use of cheetah print in ubiquitous novelty items.

His unique ability to bring together the new dimensions of nature is also evident in his juxtaposition of mystical animals that ordinarily would not inhabit the same space in nature. For instance, his birds of paradise hover close above the cheetah’s head, a harmony frozen in time that would be instantaneously shattered by motion.

However, in his illustration, Mr Boscheri suspends these creatures in space and time, as if he had woven together a different reality - one that allows us to appreciate their timeless beauty.

Mr Boscheri’s figures have myriad layers - an underlying layer through which he creates luminescence or what he calls the ‘flash effect’ through the use of an airbrush. Then, he outlines the image using oils and acrylic - an overlay that allows him to capture nature’s magic. And, he synthesizes the two through his use of decorative symbols, drawing on ancient ritualistic symbols - a dimension that highlights the mystical in nature. In his way, he reminds the viewers to preserve nature, as it is precious and increasingly under threat.

The exhibition will remain on from April 26 to May 10.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2017