ISLAMABAD, Sept 22: Whether mixed-media abstractions or explosively dynamic expressions, Arif Hussain Khokhar’s canvas possesses fascinating and enigmatic beauty.

The Karachi based artist and art instructor works in a variety of styles, but with each he demonstrates a pitch-perfect sensibility to composition, colour and structure.

In his new exhibition that took year and a half to finish, the artist proudly introduced to his visitors the 15 paintings that at first come across as childlike drawings but carry deeper, dynamic and chaotic imagery that also resembles explosions of colour and shapes emerging or tearing across the canvasses.

“My work deals with the line of drawings on various surfaces,” said Arik Khokhar on the opening day at the Nomad Art Gallery.

The work reflects imagery of the artist’s personal space — where he lives and works and his studio.

They reflect the obvious things containing blurry shapes of apparent articles, books, windows, human figures and even the emptiness.

Visitors described some of the drawings as an inspirational approach reminiscent of sketch book towards the solitude surroundings around the artist.

Some of the abstract impressions jump at the viewers — at times confusing the foreground with the background and vice versa.

The layers and layers of emotions crisscrossing and zigzagging across the large canvasses in black and white, orange, red and blue lines depict the artist’s frustration, hope, passion and anger, positive elements and isolation.

The effects are never disorderly. Arif Khokhar crafts the sense of movement and depth with attention to every jutting form, spinning line and glowing hues. Dark and spectacular, such works have a thrilling dynamism that are all the more intriguing for suggesting isolation and frustration and bursting energy.

“Lines make you see the drawings, drawings make you think of finding anything, and anything could be an object. Everything has its own form and shape although the freely scrabbled and smudged drawings would be merged into colour to blur the line between drawing and painting,” said Arif Khokhar who is a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the National College of Arts Lahore.

Two of his drawings reflect the artist’s freedom of expression almost like a child with crayons sitting over the pages. The display will run till September 30.