LAHORE: The eyes express well what the lips fear to say.

This statement seemed true at a solo exhibition of portraits titled ‘The Uncommon Commons’ by Ahmad Nadeem Kasher that opened at Ejaz Gallery on MM Alam Road on Wednesday.

The art show was a source of delight for lovers of visual art who enjoyed looking at faces painted by the artist with an arresting focus on eyes and portraiture.

The vibrant and bold colour tones of these portraits, with eyes telling hundreds of stories about the life that goes through them, made the exhibition a well-attended one.

Mr Kasher told Dawn that he remembered the days when he graduated from the College of Art and Design at at the University of Punjab back in 1992. “I was passionate about exploring faces by depicting them on canvas even as a budding artist,” said Kasher.

“The collection of work on display at my first solo exhibition is my fresh work which I completed in a year and a half.”

The artist explained his portraits. “In my lifetime, both past and present, I have come across many faces. Some of the expressions on these faces have stuck with me. Whether I saw them from afar or up close, even though they may have been part of the common crowd, their eyes revealed their uncommonness. This is what my new collection of work is about - an assortment of faces from my life in Pakistan and the United States. Their expressions that stayed with me long enough for me to paint them only made me more curious about their stories: Who are they, and where are they from? What is their life like? What are their hopes, dreams, and desires? I might never know, but that’s what makes them the uncommon commons.”

The artist is a painter drawn to people, their expressions, stories, lives and personal worlds.

Although he experiments with various subjects, painting portraits is where his passion for making art lies. He leaves the eyes and lips to do most of the talking while everything else in the expressions he captures tells the rest of the person’s story. Working mainly in oil and acrylic, he draws inspiration from the movement of life around him and uses a mirage of colours and materials to set the tone just right for each of his paintings. His studio is based in New York.

Former College of Art and Design principal of the University of Punjab Prof Dr Rahat Naveed Masood has a long association with Kashar.

“He was my student in the 1980s,” Prof Masood tells Dawn.

“Being naturally gifted he stood out in the class because of his bold application of colour which he distributed in broad and vibrant strokes. His drawings were intense and very sure, often resulting in strong silhouettes. Once he was abroad, he took up the field of design, but his passion for painting remained. He has now brought back to his home town an imposing exhibition of striking portraits- portraits of people that represent both cultures that he has encountered in his life- The spontaneity of his brush strokes creates magical vibrations, and the features that he paints convey a depth of understanding of the human form and psyche. Each portrait is alive and tells a story of life’s visceral journey.”

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2022