66 Statements at Gallery 6
66 Statements
His Excellency Mr. Tim George
(High Commissioner of Australia) and
Mrs. Geraldine George
Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 5.30
will continue till 15 April 2012
from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm including Sundays
Gallery 6
House 624, Street 44, G-9/1
Islamabad-Pakistan
Gallery6 reopens on Saturday with an interesting exhibition titled ‘66 statements’, a collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, relief work, prints and photographs.
The exhibition includes a large variety of work in different genres and mediums by 63 artists from Islamabad, Karachi, Jamshoro, Lahore and Chakwal; two from Australia and one from the USA.
The lens of three photographers — Aasim Akhtar, Arjumand Hussain and Javaid Khan — focuses varied themes from humans to nature.
The effects created by Javaid Khan are attractive which have been obtained through the use of different lenses only without meddling through computer.
There are five sculptors with a good display of four different mediums — clay, fibre glass, wood and metal.
Nusrat Raza Mangi’s musician is a detailed piece which casts a spiritual effect while the senior Rabia Zuberi sculptures are modernistic in her signature styles.
Abdul Jabbar displays a couple while new entrant Samina Arjumand’s clay sculptures express the value of hands in life situations – either in caring for a child by a mother or in expression of love between two people. Jamil Baloch’s relief ‘Mother and child’ showing feet of a person and cracked ground surface is spell bounding.
Drawings are by a senior artist Saeed Akhtar, Nazir Ahmed, a recent graduate of NCA Rawalpindi, Henri Souffay, a French settled in Karachi for the last 35 years, and Athar Jamal from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi. Each one of them exhibits a distinctively different style.
The printmakers are Zaira Ahmed and Aleem Dad Khan, faculty members of NCA Rawalpindi, and Adnan Samuel Javed from Lahore. Two signed prints of a leading Australian artist Phillip Hall, who uses traditional Aboriginal Art technique in his paintings, are also on display.Calligraphy works are by six artists, including masters like Rashid Ahmed Arshed and Ahmed Khan, Akram Spaul, Arif Khan, Tahir Bin Qalandar and new entrant Tayyab Munawwar. However, one thing common in all the works is that they are bright, lively and colourful.
Landscapes include a brilliant work of Ghulam Rasool that he finished in 1967. A fascinating landscape in acrylic and ink is by an Australian artist Gabrielle Pool, showing ‘fertility trees’ in Africa against a sunset background. Other works are by well-known names in the art world like Nazir Ahmed, Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi and Mughees Riaz.
Among them, also standing prominently is the rapidly upcoming Matloob Baig. Interestingly, in this category are also four painters from Chakwal – Amjad Hussain, Raja Najmul Hasan, Tanvir Kausar Mughal and his son Shehzad Mughal.
One landscape is in dry pastels by Islamabad-based banker Omar Waheed, who has become noticeable in a short period of two years. In this category, Shehla Rafi outshines all with her subtle strokes and depth of work. Hanif Shehzad and A.Q. Arif have painted the cityscapes and it is interesting to see Arif taking some experimental steps on paper.
Women remain the focus of many painters in their iconic styles. Hajra Mansur, Abrar Ahmed and Rind focus on eastern aesthetics of elongated necks, long drawn eyes with other romantic symbols like peacock and other birds.
Mobina Zuberi captures a thoughtful woman, Wahab Jaffer celebrates with colours in new patterns, Mohammad Ali Bhatti remains skillfully realistic, Ali Abbas dwells with Thari women with decreasingly less colour and increasing empty space, and Iqbal Hussain shows himself painting a woman – an unusual composition from him. A well done painting in charcoal and oil by late Mansur Aye on his typical moon-faced women is a collector’s item.
RM Naeem’s “To whom it may concern” from his new series of work titled Today and Sana Arjumand’s “Annihilation” are innovative in dealing with their subject and in treatment of the paintings. Both are stupendous artworks and placed side-by-side without overshadowing each other. The exhibition will continue till April 15.
(Dawn)