PESHAWAR: A young artist has recently attracted attention of art lovers to his charming mural relief works, wonderful calligraphy, pencil sketches, photographs and paintings in multi-medium, all staked in his dingy art gallery.

Living in a two-marla home in the walled city of Peshawar, Zeeshan Minhas grew up amid colours and canvases since his grandfather and father were known artists of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Inspired by his artistic family, he developed taste for crafting artworks through several mediums and with a clear objective of carrying out legacy of his elders to promote old culture of the walled city and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at large.

The young artist has been involved in visual artworks for the last over two decades. Six months ago another novel idea hit his mind and that was to use clay for mural relief artwork.

Zeeshan Minhas says most of his artworks losing lustre due to lack of space

“The task was not easy and secondly it was expensive and time consuming. Thinking that the historic Peshawar city is fast being transformed by modern construction at the cost of demolishing its old cultural identity, I determined to preserve its past glory through my art and I was able to complete my first project in the shape of a clay mural relief of ‘Peshawar Museum’ and instantly it caught the attention of art lovers,” he said.

The artist’s second project is to complete work on the historic Qila Bala Hisar and several other such heritage sites and structures in and around the city but currently lack of resources and space have stalled his ambitious art projects.

“Primarily I am not a commercial artist, but if provincial culture and tourism departments provided me with enough resources and space, I would gladly do it as it is my earnest desire to preserve and promote old face of my beloved city and KP at large,” he stated.

Mr Minas has participated in several art competitions throughout the country and has also won awards and commendation certificates for his best works including photography, calligraphy, pencil sketches and paintings in water and oil mediums.

“Due to lack of space, most of my precious artworks are losing lustre. It is a pity that KP despite being rich in art and heritage does not have an art gallery to display works of the artists. Art gallery will be the first step towards preserving old heritage in addition to display of artworks. Unfortunately, philistinism has overtaken the KP art scene,” he said.

About his future plans, the young artist said that he would love to come out with more clay mural relief works and perform as peace ambassador for preserving and promoting heritage and tourist sites around KP.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2022