KARAHCI: A group exhibition to mark the 68th Independence Day of the country opened at the Grandeur Art Gallery on Thursday. The noticeable feature of the show is that it is not specifically meant to celebrate an important national day, but the paintings on display give a wide spectrum of subjects relating to Pakistani society.

It all, of course, starts with Akram Spaul’s tribute to the Pakistani flag. The artist is known for his super or hyper realistic depiction of things. However, there’s nothing hyper about the four images in one piece that he has painted. They are simple, differentiated by the lightness of shades and the breeze which is causing the flag to flutter in four different ways. The other painting, which has an airplane moving across the clear blue sky as the Pakistani flag takes centre stage has become a sort of representative of the artist’s patriotic urge.

Sabiha Nasruddin shifts the focus to land. Her landscape, which immediately follows Spaul’s work, is indicative of the versatility that Pakistan has to offer in terms of concepts. Landscapes allow artists the luxury to interpret nature as freely as they can. Sabiha remains rooted to soil, and that is the element that makes her artwork worth viewing over and over.

Rind in recent years has developed a fondness for putting art and poetry together. So his rustic women wearing traditional attire against a colourful backdrop are always accompanied by a Faiz Ahmed Faiz poem, hinting at the coming together of the gham-i-jaanan and the gham-i-dauran.

The most striking artwork in the show belongs to Farrukh Shahab. The image of a faqir-like figure (perhaps of the artist himself) with long hands and tattered clothes is a sight that invokes multiple ideas. If on the one hand it comes across as a personal comment on the way Farrukh perceives life, on the other it is symbolic of the elusive spirituality that everybody talks about but none seems to have found. Or, it could just be an uncomplicated figure.

Shakira Masood doesn’t seem to take herself seriously as an artist. She is a tremendous painter who possesses the rare quality of turning reality into a dreamy occurrence. Her artwork in the exhibition is one such extraordinary piece.

The group show, participated by more than 20 artists, will continue until Aug 23.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2015

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