KARACHI: It is not very often that you get to see work of artists from Peshawar. When it happens, it assumes significance on two counts. One, art lovers get to know who the artists coming out of that important region of the country are. Two, what kind of subject matter interests them. An exhibition of seven contemporary artists from Peshawar that opened on Tuesday evening at the FOMMA Art Centre in DHA serves well on both counts.

There are a few strands to Jehanzeb Malik’s paintings, foremost of which is pathos. His characters have an aura of melancholy around them. It’s not difficult to spot them that they hail from a society we are familiar with. But the melancholy has a somewhat alien feel to it, as if his characters are leading two lives. The haze in his artworks probably points to the constant challenges that life throws at us, making things hard to grasp.

On the other hand, Adbur Rehman’s landscapes depict a fertile image. However, this fecundity too cannot be understood unless you are acquainted with the turmoil that the region he is painting has undergone. The green and blue shades do the trick for the artist, as they nicely shroud the blackness within.

Sajid Ali’s depiction of concurrent progress and decadence is breathtaking. His realistic work (for instance, a rickshaw parked near a cracked building in an old street) creates a surrealistic effect, a readily identifiable one at that.

Ghulam Shabbier’s portrayal of conservable buildings carries on with the topic a little differently. The aesthete in Shabbier seems to overtake the artist in him. His eye for detail is pretty noteworthy.

From there on, Zakir Ali, Tayyeba Aziz and Abbas Ali diversify the exhibition discussing themes that are a clear departure from the above-mentioned works. Zakir Ali brings the equestrian element into play while Abbas Ali makes the viewer see the floral side of it all. And all of them impress.

The show will remain open till Jan 30.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2015

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