I have followed Adeel Uz Zafar’s journey since his early days as a children’s book illustrator in the late 1990s — he even illustrated a few of my own books. My earliest encounter with what would later become his signature ‘scratch and reveal’ technique was a large painting from his National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore thesis show. He had reworked the piece, etching into the surface of a coloured drawing for our NuktaArt magazine’s One Square Mile project in 2009.

The same year, the exhibition ‘Size Does Matter’ at V.M. Art Gallery, Karachi became a defining moment for Zafar. The show catapulted him into the circle of Pakistan’s noteworthy emerging artists. The enormous scale of his works, paired with his meticulous rendering of soft toys tightly wrapped in gauze bandage and engraved on to plastic vinyl sheets coated with emulsion and acrylic gel, revealed an astonishing command over detail. Each waft and weave of the white threads of the gauze was offered up with almost obsessive clarity, setting him on a path he has continued to navigate since.

It was, therefore, intriguing to see his recent solo exhibition, ‘Overrated Underrated’ at Canvas Gallery, especially with a title that feels knowingly self-reflective — a playful nod to the art world’s perpetual negotiation of value, taste and perception. The works, instantly recognisable in their precision and aesthetic language, largely remain rooted in familiar ground. Yet, perhaps that familiarity is intentional — Zafar seems less interested in dramatic reinvention than in holding up a mirror to our expectations of him, of the art world and of the slippery notions of what makes something ‘overrated’ or ‘underrated’.

Over the years, Zafar’s painstaking craft has become both his strength and his signature, and here he leans into it with a disarming sense of self-awareness. In an art landscape where constant novelty is often equated with relevance, Zafar’s steadfastness feels almost radical — a gentle reminder that continuity can be its own form of rebellion.

Instead of dramatic reinvention, Adeel Uz Zafar’s latest body of work is more interested in holding up a mirror to our expectations of him and the art world

Even so, there are moments where he pushes into new terrain. In two works, the image is barely visible beyond its shape, as the toy animal figures nearly dissolve into the equally dark backgrounds, leaving the small, strikingly painted circular eye to confront the viewer. These pieces suggest an emerging shift in direction, an exploration of mood, minimalism and symbolism beyond his established lexicon.

A similar sense of experimentation appears in the diptychs Underrated IX and Underrated X. Here, two engraved drawings on plastic vinyl depict the linear, bandaged Labubu doll, deliberately distorted, its form unsettled and oddly disenfranchised.

Moving beyond his signature teddy and bunny, Zafar engages with contemporary pop-culture motifs. According to the artist, the altered surface proportions reflect the idea of “overrated-ness”. While the distended surfaces mark a new development in the series, the motif of the singular, unblinking eye remains a familiar anchor.

Moreover, his light-boxes form the most playful and visually diverse component of the exhibition. Animated hand gestures, appropriated from open sources and instantly recognisable even to a child, introduce a lighter, quirkier register that taps directly into the visual language of emojis, symbols and digital shorthand that increasingly shapes contemporary communication and popular culture.

Zafar’s long-standing practice, reliant on engraving plush toys, has drawn both admiration and critique precisely because of its sustained focus on one recurring subject. By foregrounding this discourse, Zafar turns the gaze back on to the conversation itself, creating a meta-commentary on popularity, perception and artistic repetition.

Perhaps most tellingly, Zafar articulates the balance he continues to negotiate as an artist: “We are not craftsmen following overrated trends, nor are we bohemian free spirits who exist just to feel. There are realities we need to take into account in order to be creative individuals adding to the rich fabric of our society and culture. This series of works represents that balance; some of these works are for the viewers and some of them are solely for my peace of mind.”

It is a strikingly honest summation — one that encapsulates both the steadiness and the introspection that define the exhibition.

‘Overrated Underrated’ was on display at Canvas Gallery, Karachi from November 11-20, 2025

Rumana Husain is a writer, artist and educator. She is the author of two coffee-table books on Karachi, and has authored and illustrated 90 children’s books

Published in Dawn, EOS, December 7th, 2025