In a city whose art world is accused of being increasingly insular, “Group Show” at the Chawkandi Art Gallery, Karachi proved that good art covering different genres will bring together an unlikely group of appreciators. An exhibition of the work of 11 established Pakistani artists was curated by Zohra Husain and opened to the public recently.

The exhibition features the work of Adeel uz Zafar, Afshar Malik, Ali Azmat, Anwar Saeed, Mughees Riaz, Munawar Ali, Nahid Raza, Naima Dadabhoy, Naiza Khan, Shakil Saigol and Unver Shafi.

Light and tone created a romantic mood in Mughees Riaz and Naiza Khan’s work, with both artists eliciting a sense of loss for a simpler, purer time. Riaz focused on pastoral Punjab, while Khan’s seascapes were juxtaposed with inklings of technology and mechanisation.

Boasting an array of styles and media, intuition and awareness of the world around us are at the core of the show

Afshar Malik’s painting ‘Within yourself or among all’ and Munawar Ali’s sculpture ‘Over loaded series’, that were placed together, played off each other. One couldn’t help but think about the implications of Ali’s sculpture of a woman physically weighed down by worldly influences, when looking at Malik’s painting of an individual so consumed by all around him, that him the individual, had become insignificant.

Adeel uz Zafar, Ali Azmat, Anwar Saeed, Naima Dadabhoy and Shakil Saigol’s works evoke pathos, but each artist achieves this using their individual style. Adeel’s relief print of an abandoned, bandaged, stuffed toy conveys, childlike innocence being abused — a subtle execution of a disturbing idea. The lack of colour in both Adeel and Naima’s work adds to the struggle.

In contrast, Ali and Anwar’s work also conveys melancholy, but it is done using brightly coloured figures, objects and surroundings. Shakil’s work, also figurative, is complex in its approach to colour; the artist treating some figures in shades of grey, and some in bold primary colours, thus dictating how the viewer takes in the paintings.

There are few people who have studied ‘The Woman’ as much as Nahid Raza. Her work, made especially for this exhibition, is very personal to the artist because it deals with the cycle of life and the vital role that a woman plays in this cycle. Nahid’s own experience and her children were the inspiration behind the two pieces on show. Painted using earth-tones and organic, confident brush stokes, the paintings draw the viewer in.

Most interesting however, was Unver Shafi’s ‘Fabulist Series’. As the name suggests, these take inspiration from traditional fables. Both fun and witty, these pieces clearly make the observer feel as if they are looking into a different realm — the one that is highly saturated, whimsical, and hallucinatory.

Speaking to Zohra Husain and Nahid Raza, both felt that this exhibition and its reception from viewers was reminiscent of a bygone era when artists like Bashir Mirza and Ahmed Pervaiz would bring an array of viewers to Karachi’s galleries.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, April 19th, 2015

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