ISLAMABAD: Gallery6 on Thursday held a preview of an exhibition titled ‘The Onrushing-1” which will formally open on Friday and which includes the works of new artists.

This is the first exhibition of a series of group shows by artists who participated in the National Arjumand Painting Award 2017 which was also organised by Gallery6. The judges of the award had recommended that the outstanding artists in the show be rewarded with group exhibitions, the one opening Friday being one of them.

The artists participating in this show are Abdul Aziz Meer, Ahsan Javed, Kanwal Zafar and Mohammad Faheem Tufail.

Ms Zafar has a masters in fine arts from the Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi in 2001. She has had her work exhibited in Islamabad, California, Dubai, London, Lisbon, Porto and Rome and she carried out a 10-day ‘Art Inspiration Research’ in various parts of Turkey this June.

“It is a theme as vast as ‘be and it is’, that minds cannot fathom but hearts can grasp,” she said,

Ms Zafar uses chromo-therapy to effect mood and physical and mental health. The unique frequencies and vibration of various colours can influence emotions and enable the body to heal. In this way, art can be used for healing as well, she said.

Mohammad Faheem Tufail also received masters in visual art from the National College of Art (NCA), Lahore in 2012. He has held exhibitions in Lahore and Faisalabad and has been curator of shows in Faisalabad.

Mr Tufail has experimented with different textures and surfaces and the basic forms of different objects in his career. He has also explored the basics of textiles and other disciplines of painting.

Discussing his work during the preview, he said: “I want to break free from all restrictions of medium and surfaces and bring about a composite of techniques, surfaces and textures into creative expression. Most of my work is abstract and may be categorised as contemporary”.

Ahsan Javed graduated in fine arts from the NCA, Lahore in January 2016 and has been participating on group shows since 2013.

“My practice deals with the ideas of originality, reality and representation. These are all relative terms and could not be assumed to form a universal understanding. I have been using various methods to crop, cut and paste information from a variety of media including references from newspapers, magazines, popular imagery and history,” he said.

Abdul Aziz Meer was born and raised in Chitral. He joined NCA, Lahore in 2013 and graduated earlier this year with miniature painting as his major. However, he is currently making paintings in abstract impressionism in large sizes. He uses his own body as a medium to make impressions on paper and then treats them with Siah Qalam and Neem Rang – the two techniques of miniature painting.

“It creates a tactile texture of the body, with distorted forms that carry a mysterious ambiguity,” he said.

“I also see certain elements of fear and suffering in my work. When I stand in front of my work I see a rush of memories hitting me like waves,” Mr Meer said.

The exhibition will continue till Sept 22.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2017