In the recent retrospective show at Lahore’s Ejaz Art Gallery, titled ‘Dil Darya [River of the Heart]’, Mughees Riaz showcases an intensely subjective and accomplished account of the last 25 years of his practice, bringing together diverse components of visual memory and allegorical metaphors.

This exhibition, rich in nostalgia, introspection and aesthetic continuity, offers not only an overview of his career but also his fascinating reflections on the country he belongs to. Riaz has always been in love with the Ravi River and often relates its flow and vastness to the emotional landscape found within a sensitive artist.

The landscapes the Ravi River traverses have always remained at the thematic and spiritual essence of Riaz’s painting. This show also presents the same rich visual spectacles as a significant part of the exhibits. Here, the river flows across the canvas, as a metaphorical artery — pulsing with life, the unending flow of time and the persistence of memories.

Buffaloes, boats and crows are perennial symbols associated with riverbanks, and they have a significant place in the artist’s oeuvre. Buffaloes evoke an agrarian nostalgia for the Punjabi terrain, and crows serve as the trumpeters of loss, chaos and calamity. Conversely, the boats propose migration and displacement — collectively advocating the scary lyricism of existence and decay, the temporal stint within time, and the existential attribution we all long for.

The Ravi River becomes a vessel for memory, migration and melancholy at a deeply introspective exhibition in Lahore

In most of these riverscapes, the sunsets adorns the horizon line with its afterglow, stretched and glistening in burnt sienna, amber and violet haze — as if to frame the Ravi River not simply as a landscape but as a narrator, rather a whisperer, of unvoiced and unregistered anecdotes.

At the same time, this exhibition also frames figurative and portraiture studies. The peculiar gaze of the clothed and semi-nude masculine figure, juxtaposed with the veiled female, apparently without any intimacy, suggests the social and emotional melancholy caused by the unnatural interaction of opposite genders. Riaz does not claim to be a socially aware painter. However, his figures inhabit the frames in a tactile and idle manner, addressing the very social fabric of gender, identity and vulnerability. Here, the veil or the skin, both are treated and presented as layers that cover the soul, not just the human body.

The painting Kirdar Series-2, displays Riaz’s mastery of using variations of the colour black. In this painting, the black buffaloes, black-bearded male figure, and black burqa-clad females are all bejewelled with black eyeballs of different shapes and sizes, captivating the beholder with a hypnotic intensity.

The same is the case with his misty landscapes, where the soft and subtle shades, applied in a surreal approximation, create a kind of somnambulant reverie. These frames, often devoid of any human, animal or bird presence, serve as emotional and visual counterpoints, where existence is implied through non-existence.

Riaz, in pursuit of documenting his artistic journey, specifically pays homage to his ancestors, who were, in various ways, associated with the visual arts practice. The handwritten manuscript by Riaz’s great-grandfather Mian Ilm Din, the film posters by his maternal grandfather Noor Ahmad Azad, postage stamp designs by great-uncle Muhammad Latif, and famous designs by his father Mahmood Khalid Riaz add a special certification to this retroactive accreditation for a quarter-century of professional work by the artist.

‘Dil Darya’ is on display at the Ejaz Art Gallery in Lahore from May 22-June 10, 2025

The writer teaches Art History and Criticism at the University of Punjab in Lahore

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 1st, 2025