KARACHI: The Nigaah Art Awards for 2024 were held at the Mohatta Palace Museum on Sunday evening.

As many as 14 artists received the awards for abstract, miniature, still life, figurative, portraiture, drawing, landscape, 3D sculpture, printmaking, photography, curatorial work, art critic, calligraphy and emerging artist categories.

The winners are: Farrukh Shahab (abstract), Shahla Rafi (landscape), Madiha Hyder (drawing), Amin Gulgee (3D sculpture), Ali Azmat (figurative), Irfan Cheema (still life), Muzammil Ruheel (calligraphy), Shamir Iqtidar (emerging artist), Nusra Latif (miniature), Noor Ahmed (curatorial work), Nusrat Khawaja (critic), Malika Abbas (photography), Buland Iqbal (portraiture) and Laila Rehman (printmaking).

In between the announcement for winners, musical items and an art performance titled The Mystic Garden,curated by Farrukh Shahab and Umaina Khan, were arranged for the audience as well.

Earlier, Tauqueer Muhajir, editor and publisher of Nigaah Magazine that holds the event every year, said it’s the fourth iteration of the award ceremony and it gives Nigaah great pleasure to recognise Pakistani artists in a variety of categories.

“The hard work put in by my fellow jury members — Dr Arjumand Faisal, Dr Rahat Naveed Masud, Noorjehan Bilgrami, R M Naim and Amra Ali — cannot be understated. The awards act as the stimulant to the artist community. All artists have demonstrated their creativity, skill and infinite talent,” he said, adding: “They enrich our lives with their expressions, insights and perspectives.”

“We also have the honour to recognise two people for lifetime achievement awards: they are artist Wahab Jaffer and gallerist and curator Zohra Husain,” he said, adding that they had contributed big time to art over several decades.

Mr Muhajir said since he divides his time between Pakistan and overseas, close friends ask him why he comes back to Pakistan. In response to which he recited two lines in Urdu:

Aik watan wo hai jis mein hum rehte hain

Aik watan wo hai jo hum mein rehta hai

[There’s a country in which we live

But there’s also a country that lives within us]

“In addition to recognising artistic excellence, we also use this platform for social responsibility. We conduct an art auction every year and the major proceeds of the auction goes towards supporting art scholarships for underprivileged children to pursue a formal education in art,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2024