Group shows are always tricky. If the works of the artists are too similar, the exhibition runs the risk of devolving into a dull affair, where each artwork is indiscernible from the next. But, if the artworks on display fail to complement one another, the show can appear rather disjointed and lack a clearly established narrative through-line.

The eight-person group show ‘Mankind’, recently on display at the Canvas Gallery in Karachi, thankfully managed to avoid these pitfalls. The artists participating in this exhibition were AB Rehman, Ahsan Javaid, Ahsan Memon, Ghazi Sikandar Mirza, Mariam Arshad, Noormah Jamal, Raheela Abro and Syed Hussain.

The selection of artists for this show allowed for a pleasing mix of varying art styles and techniques, all of which capture the unique visions and perspectives of figure-based art. Encapsulating the essence of the human form with great nuance and complexity, these contemporary works showcase the versatility within the genre of figurative art used to tell different stories.

Take Arshad’s paintings, for instance. Her renderings of the human figure are evocative and stimulating, but it is the act in which we catch these figures that truly sets her work apart. Her paintings showcase women and children lathered with shaving foam on their face and in a rather contemplative mood.

The artists participating in Canvas Gallery’s latest group show contend with the past and established traditions in an attempt to make sense of the present

In Cut Cut Cut, a child donning a red tie and holding two scissors sits atop a set of bricks, like a younger Edward Scissorhands. Another boy gets a shave from a street-side barber in Secret Strips, while a woman sits rather stoically with a red tie around her neck and shaving brush in one hand in the painting Unself Myself.

While it isn’t always easy to unpack or fully grasp the symbolism behind the recurring motifs in her work, Arshad’s depiction of unusual scenes and the juxtapositions that lie within them certainly leave a lasting impression.

Similarly, Rehman’s work also shines due to the fusion of the familiar with the peculiar. He uses famous images of statues, such as those found in Buddhism or ancient Greek art, and merges them with an augmented reality (AR) experience, to blend the old with the new.

In Rehman’s words, “My practice revolves around bringing together the future and the past. This series depicts a futuristic tribute to the past. The main purpose of my paintings is to invoke two emotions within my audience: recognition and the feeling of the unknown. We all are used to seeing still images, so the aim is to merge paintings with AR to create an entirely new reality using contemporary technology.”

Mirza’s black-and-white oil paintings embody a sense of gothic horror. His paintings contain demonic, mythic creatures, and the swarms of people which occupy centre-stage in all his paintings appear to be lost, confused and distressed. Both the colour palette and the compartmentalisation within these paintings seem to hearken back to Pablo Picasso’s Guernica.

Hussain’s work has clearly emerged from a very specific milieu and contends with important concerns. Through his paintings, Hussain wrestles with the discrimination, isolation and disassociation he has experienced in Pakistan as an ethnic Hazara. The question of belonging led him to delve into old family photos and documents, some of which form the basis of his artwork.

His paintings depict children, posing as if they’re ready for a passport photo to be taken, flanked by the ghost-like outlines of other family members. Hussain’s paintings, much like most of the works showcased at this exhibition, are tinged with an element of melancholy and uncertainty.

‘Mankind’ was on display at the Canvas Gallery, Karachi from June 20-29, 2023.
The writer is an artist and educator

Published in Dawn, EOS, July 2nd, 2023