As the contemporary art world attempts to cleanse itself from representational imagery and realist depictions of the human form, it has become increasingly rare to find artists still working in traditional mediums and styles. It is even rarer to view works that emerge out of an exploration of pure form and technique, revelling in the art of recreating reality. A recent solo show of Ali Azmat at the Canvas Gallery in Karachi provided just this opportunity. A series of large-scale, black and white portraits of women rendered in his signature hyperrealism, still stood out from his previous vibrant and striking work.

Azmat’s 20-year long career has mostly been focused on oil and canvas as a medium of choice, and the marginalised society as his point of focus. His works display a fascination with the human form and folds of fabric, painted with a dynamic play of light and colour to create striking and provocative visuals. In his earlier works he explored themes of loneliness, isolation and exclusion through the use of composition and space, with figures curled up, turned away, looking down or hiding their faces in some way. However, over here we see something completely different.

The works in this series go back to drawing as a medium of exploration and ‘meditation’, as the artist calls it. While the characters in his older paintings usually hide their faces, in these drawings the women boldly hold the gaze of the viewer. In earlier paintings, the bodies folded themselves in a vulnerable gesture; here, women stand upright and face the audience. The arms remain folded on the chest in almost all the works in a defiant gesture.

Ali Azmat’s drawings revel in the joy of creating illusions through the simple act of putting charcoal to paper

The larger-than-life scale of the works allows details to be captured, yet these charcoal renditions are very clean and sterile. There is a quietness to the way Azmat uses the medium and frames the figure. However, one is able to pick up certain nuances in some of the works due to the scale. A portrait of a woman in hijab allows a curled up strand of hair to go free and caress her cheek. While the headscarf dominates the composition, wrapping the head completely and even overwhelming the face, with the rest of the body omitted from view, the lone strand of hair is almost a silent rebellion. The scale of the work is about 5x3 feet and allows the subject to engage the viewer through her bold gaze.

For the most part, the artworks are not trying to make any bold statements, but seem to be the artist’s attempt to retrace the roots of art-making and revel in the joy of creating illusions through the simple act of putting charcoal to paper.

“Larger Than Life” was on display at the Canvas Gallery in Karachi from February 12 to February 21, 2019

Published in Dawn, EOS, March 10th, 2019