Inspired by the paintings of Iqbal Hussain while having dinner at Kuku’s Den, she decided to drop the studies of law for visual arts during A levels. It becomes a never-ending story for visual artist Rabia Ajaz who had never thought of being a professional artist before.
“Coming from the family of lawyers, doctors and economists I was the first one who decided to be a painter. The only acceptable arts discipline for my parents was architecture, but working with the straight mechanical lines always seems monotonous to me,” she says.
An year after graduation in visual arts from Beaconhouse National University she got a Fulbright scholarship to study in Pratt Institute, New York.
After doing Masters she worked in the faculty of BNU and National College of Arts for a short period. With a realisation that teaching is hindering her passion to paint she had confined herself only to studio practices for the last couple of years, showcasing her works in Pakistan, India, Dubai and New York.
The works of Risham Hosain Syed, Farahat Ali and Ayaz Jokhio have been her permanent sources of inspiration.
She is grateful to Ayaz Jokhio for being instrumental in her artistic grooming during undergraduate studies.
“He has an understanding of my visual language, we share a same sense of aesthetics and I always trust his judgment,’’ she says.
The first body of works she created was a series of large-scale realistic self-portraits merged with the architectural images.