LAHORE, May 23: An exhibition of some 22 artworks by Paris Biennial Laureate Iqbal Geoffrey opened at Zahoorul Akhlaq Gallery of the National College of Arts on Wednesday.

It is a mixed media art show that includes works done in collage, paints, watercolour mediums etc.

In the largely attended exhibition one room was left empty symbolising the feeling of emptiness.

The artist told Dawn the exhibition was result of his journey in the field spanning over several decades from 1960 to 2012. He said another exhibition of his works would be held at the Lahore Museum on July 24 which would feature some 123 pieces. The works on display have themes like emptiness, dislocation, prescription and proscription.

The artist has been living in Europe and the United States since 1960 and returned to his native land in 1990 after being urged to do so by renowned poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Art critic Quddus Mirza writes in his introductory piece on the exhibition: “It was in the mid 80s, more precisely in the 1984, that I, with my fellow students from NCA, visited Iqbal Geoffrey’s exhibition at Alhamra. What unfolded before all of us was art, but not the kind we were familiar with or associated to the idea of art. To me these works were incredibly astonishing, because these were more about ideas, than merely being pictorial exercises; something that was not much visible, explored or experienced at that time”.

“In that sense Geoffrey is the early explorer and exponent of conceptual art in our surroundings. As Geoffrey with his ideas and artworks commented not only on the situation and society, but also on the system and structure of art making. Hence the work was ahead of its age (as with his art pieces/practices forming the present exhibition). It suggested that creativity is not conditioned or contained in one direction, course, culture, race or society”, he concludes.

The exhibition will remain open till June 24.