KARACHI: It’s such a delight to see a good number of sculptors coming up along with painters and performance artists to make Pakistani art scene a wholesome and vibrant one. To boot, what’s heartening about them is that they use a variety of media, and not just the traditional metal or wood medium, to express themselves. The latest example is a group show titled Exploring In Depth which can be seen at the Art Chowk Gallery in which works of no fewer than 20 artists are on display.

The observation about the variety of media is vindicated by the gallery, which introducing the show says, “Artworks have been collected directly from the artists on an individual basis resulting in a very interesting collection. Their usage of different mediums and conveying different ideas brings together a show not seen before.”

This is a huge claim: “a show not seen before.” But it’s not untrue in the sense that the sculptors employ mixed media on fabric, wire and gauze, white clay on canvas relief and polycate, among others, to touch upon subjects such as innocence, nature and its munificence, and matters pertaining to the soul etc.

And what the viewer gets to experience is beauty and pensiveness coming together under one roof with aesthetic grace. It is not possible to stay with a single piece on view just for a fleeting moment; the viewer cannot help but spend time with it.

The participating artists are: Sahar Musharraf, M Mansoor Zaib, Yaruk Mehmood, Ahsan Ahmed Farooqi, Saliha Naz, Hina Tabassum, Sehrish Willayat, Marium Mansoor, Haroon Rasheed, Abdullah Qamar, Unzila Zaheer, Muhammad Ismail, Samara Shahid, Kashaf Farrukh, Usman Hussain, Dr Mohsin Nazir, Maria Haider, Hasnain Ali, Nabeel Majeed Shaikh and Syeda Sheeza Ali.

The exhibition concludes on Jan 13

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2022