KARACHI: Ali Azmat is one of Pakistan’s leading artists. His work has always prompted a strong, commendatory response from art lovers.

An exhibition of his latest body of work titled Larger Than Life that can be seen at the Canvas Art Gallery is no different. The exhibits speak volumes for the artist’s tremendous eye for detail and his insightful study of human nature (which in this show works through the dictum ‘the face is the window to the soul’).

First, let’s take a look at what Azmat has to say about his oeuvre. “After 20 years it [passion for drawing] reoccupied my soul through a massive scale of drawings where smaller elements are pronounced with a different syntax to experience new explorations of hyperrealism, emphasising on detail of form and subjectivity.” It is interesting how an artist who expresses himself through a visual medium employs the word ‘syntax’ to explain his creative process. Syntax is the manner in which we arrange words to form a sentence. It is more to do with the spoken or written language. Clearly, Azmat considers painting and drawing as a creative endeavour where ‘arrangement’ of elements is the key to communicating his message across.

What elements, you might ask. Well, they are to do with all that goes into making a face, say the things that cannot be said with the help of words. His untitled pieces (charcoal on Fabriano academia paper) signify a world where the unsaid takes precedence over the uttered. The use of charcoal does the trick for him. The shades that it imparts on facial expressions of his characters elucidate what his protagonists are going through (a gamut of feelings) as well as enhance the importance of their existence. Now it is difficult to define hyperrealism. But Azmat’s work pushes realism to a point where the physicality of a character plays an ancillary role to his/her feelings. And it’s pretty convincing.

The exhibition concludes on Feb 21.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2019