It’s that time of the year again, when the historic walls of the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore are adorned with the degree show of its graduating class.

This year the visual narratives being explored by these students range from urban dystopia and the transitioning material world to unpacking the remnants of their memories and, for some, the sheer materiality of their medium.

Salar Marri’s expressionist work tries to erase the who, when and where from the characters living on his canvases. His bold acrylic strokes and the use of an emotive colour palette create dreamlike sequences out of instances of daily life. In the adjoining gallery, a perfectly complimenting collection of life-sized hyperrealistic portraits drawn by Imran Gul sit unassumingly. The medium here, just a pencil, becomes the curator of these photo-realistic captivating unfamiliar faces.

Everyday objects become metaphors In Abdul Hadi’s work as we step into the makeshift gallery in the hallway before the miniature department. The chappals [sandals] swirling in space along with a few chairs — showing the contention and the rhythm of a proletariat (the sandals) interacting with the bourgeoisie (the chairs) — is aptly captured in his animations.

A look at some of the most memorable artworks on display at the National College of Arts’ degree show this year

Shafia Mirza’s depiction of the human skin backlit on an acrylic sheet captures the discomfort of seeing raw unfiltered skin as you move along to the open space in the fine arts department. The contrasting buoyant colours and the compositions of seemingly limb-like body parts create visually striking images.

In the spirit of placing bodies in space, Fatima Aamer does a remarkable job of creating a series of satirical print-based paintings of female bodies in typically male-dominated areas. She plays with our collective memory of the bazaar, by recreating it with women in roles typically dominated by men and in gestures and body language we associate with the male figures of our society, giving it an otherworldly feel.

Themes of absence are visible in Sherbano’s miniature waslis depicting interior views of a home with the shadowy presence (absence) of people. Her muted colour palette and eerie perspectives play with a beautiful sense of desolation.

In keeping with the themes of absence, Sabir Ali, an artist from Jamshoro, paints sites under construction, which are all too familiar to him in his quickly urbanising home city. A pile of bricks, a water tank under construction and urban density all find their way on to his canvases without the human.

In the same studio, the shoes make a reappearance on canvases as superstition in Sajid Ali’s oil paintings. His powerful imagery unpacks the divide in society over beliefs and ideas, by representing the shoe as a superstition. He plays with the placement and the typology of shoes to show the ideological differences in our society.

The children of this same society find their representation in the thesis show with Arghawan Hatif’s miniatures. Her child-like scribbles and strokes and compositions of children’s drawings are meticulously rendered paintings which spur a breath of fresh air in the gallery with their playful quality.

In a similar fashion but in a different medium, Ishaq Ali Hazara presents a literal pile of breaths in plaster of paris. The smooth, balloon-like structures, assumed to be the breath in question, sit atop one another in a weightless fashion, yet project a sense of depth and heaviness.

As I write this piece, I want to applaud the college for producing a new wave of critical, emphatic creators and curators of art. I have also looked at all of the works I wanted to discuss, but the constraints of space force me to stop here.

The NCA degree show was on display from 20-29 January, 2023

Published in Dawn, EOS, February 5th, 2023