ISLAMABAD: Khaas Gallery on Saturday opened its doors to a new group show by contemporary miniature artists who challenged the miniature tradition with their unique perspective.

The group show titled ‘Gentrification’ showcased the works by Waseem Ahmed, Sobia Ahmed, Babar Gull, Ghulam Mohammad, Syed Hussain and Ayesha Durrani.

Starting from basic forms and shapes teetering between lines and grid, Lahore-based artist Babar Gull used line in his works to explore the concepts of belief, divinity and to reach somewhere from one point to another.

“My studio practice has evolved. My main interest remains in exploring the ways in which we defy our coping mechanisms. While working I became interested in graph, making compositions with graph. All of the work explores the potential of the line as various implements,” the artist, who is a BFA from Hunerkada, told guests on the opening day.

For Sobia Ahmed, the initial visual impact a piece of art had on the viewer was more important than any subsequent notion he or she later conceived about the piece.

“This poses a problem, as often, having an idea in your head and further transforming it into a piece of art is a tricky thing to do, with the resulting image often deviating from the original subject. Often the resulting piece mutates into something else,” she said, adding that, “during the course of my career, my aim would be to create a kind of multi-layered timelessness that, I believe any piece of art must have if it is to gain any ounce of recognition in the world of art”.

Her work examined the gradual decline of ideology in Pakistan. This decline had often been attributed to the influence and interference of the West in Pakistan’s sociopolitical structure.

“Therefore, I have attempted to create interplay between the past and the present in order to demonstrate how our subjugation by the British has damaged and even further hindered the growth of our culture and ideology,” Ms Ahmed, who holds a bachelor’s degree in miniature painting, as well as masters in visual arts, from the National College of Arts (Lahore).

Works by Waseem Ahmed represented a state of uncertainty, a reflection on the unpredictability that was all pervasive and had changed life for everyone so abruptly, with only a vague sense of what the future held.

Waseem Ahmed in this series of work had given an insight to the audience on how he saw the present keeping the past in mind.

He studied historical imagery intensely and related them to the present times as he saw history in its cyclical form, repeating itself again and again. In this series of work, Mr Ahmed had highlighted the feeling of hope and, at the same time, disappointment. The show will run till April 9.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2022