Aqeel Solangi
His mother making colourful traditional ‘ralli’ and sisters doing intricate embroidery at home was his first exposure to the beauty of colours and lines, during his early childhood. Rooted in the colours and literary traditions of his land, Aqeel Solangi stands tall among his contemporaries for his sound painting skills, employing a variety of mediums.
He was born to a family of farmers in a remote village near Rani Pur, a small town in Sindh.
“Like other boys of my village, I would help my father in farming and take care of cattle. I would love scribbling on walls and making charcoal drawings.”
The passion to draw led Solangi to joining the studio of cinema board painter Ustad Mehboob at Rani Pur as an apprentice.
“I was trained to write banners initially; the next stage was painting flowers and landscape that made a lasting impression on my mind. The periwinkle flower, which I painted in various compositions, was planted in my mind during that time. Cinema hoarding painters had a culture of their own. The huge boards were drawn by senior painters, followed by layers of painting by students and final finishing by the master himself again.
“I grew up painting famous actors like Rani, Neeli, Sultan Rahi and Nadira,” he vividly recalls.
Joining the studio of veteran artist Mussarat Mirza in 1999 was a watershed moment in his life.
“To enhance my skills with the permission of my Ustad, I joined the studio of Mussarat Mirza which she opened in Sukkur after her retirement from the Sindh University. After few months of training, she advised me to join the National College of Arts. For the first time in my life, I had heard the name of this institution,” he says.
From the NCA, Solangi earned a masters degree in visual arts in 2005. Then he went to London for Charles Wallace Fellowship and after returning, joined the faculty of National College of Arts’ Rawalpindi campus where he is working till date as an assistant professor.
With seven solo shows to his credit, his career spans over more than a decade.