Asad Faruki’s credentials as a graphic designer are impressive and go back to more than three decades of work in the field of art and design. He joined his alma mater National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore as an assistant professor of communication design in 1987, and taught there till 2006. His professional experience includes other variegated endeavours, what from working for leading advertising agencies to designing logos for national and international organisations, in addition to exhibiting his paintings in various exhibitions at home and abroad.

His most recent exhibition at Lahore’s Ejaz Gallery has brought forth a colourful body of work that reiterates his background as a graphic designer and his ability to manipulate line, pattern and colours in a visually attractive manner.

Faruki’s prolific output of paintings, mostly in acrylics on canvas which also incorporate mixed media elements represent a mindset that, as the artist himself expresses, “has no grand illusions that art will create a revolution in the traditional sense”. But the belief that “one new idea can change a person’s perception” is nonetheless there, and in the case of Faruki, is evident more in the context of visual impact brought about by the manipulation of art materials. His expertise in the field of graphic design is unabashedly apparent in his painterly endeavours.

The use of text, both English and Arabic, are an integral part of most of the canvases, and appear to have been printed on the surface with much technical expertise. The calligraphic elements are used more as a design element, and words and alphabets are entwined to create beauty rather than in an attempt to say something in particular.

The focal point in most paintings however, is the female form, mostly with the face and upper torso visible, and the manner of rendering these is of the kind often found in posters pertaining to fashion design. The exception to this is found in a few works wherein the face of the woman appears veiled, with only the eyes staring out at the viewer. In fact the form of the human eye, as an element of design seems to have caught the fancy of the artist in this latest creative journey, and in many canvases one can notice that pictures of eyes have been cut and pasted on to the canvas and later paint has been used to amalgamate the collage elements with the rest of the painting.

Other design elements that find way into the pattern making are ethnic in character, featuring architectural elements and animal forms, particularly the elephant, and also reminiscent of Mughal miniature art.

Stunning colour combinations are nonetheless the most significant feature of Faruki’s canvases, and this of course is reaffirmed by the title, ‘Colours of the desert’ given to this particular exhibition. The bright, even neon hues typical of the attire of the women of our local deserts do indeed come to mind, despite the more contemporary character of most of the female forms, and reference to the desert is also to be found in some of the large earth-coloured canvases that allude to the landscape of the desert.

Faruki is the quintessential designer, content to play around with all the elements of design at his disposal, mixing and entwining them with dexterity. Many viewers will continue to be enticed by the charisma of his attractive patterns.