Artists reveal their ‘self’ in exhibition
Karachi: ‘MEIN – The Artist and the Self’, an art exhibition that opened at the Koel Gallery on Thursday, is being touted as the biggest art exhibition to take place in the city of Karachi in a long time. Works from famous Pakistani artists such as Amin Gulgee, Asim Butt and AR Nagori are to be on display at the event.
The exhibition, which is being held on the occasion of the gallery’s third anniversary, will display the works of some 85 artists; the theme of the works on display is ‘the artist’s imagination of the self’. The curators of the exhibition are Noorjehan Bilgrami and photographer Amean J.
“We asked all the artists who have worked with us in the last three years to come together and share with us their conception of themselves,” said Noorjehan Bilgrami, the owner of the gallery.
The artists presented ‘themselves’ in forms of installations and paintings – though some of the works were simple self-portraits. Meher Afroz’s mixed media piece titled ‘Mein’ showed eight blocks of printed patches, which is the medium she is best known for.
In Asim Butt’s oil-on-canvas self-portrait, he depicted a young man with a hopeless look on the face; a representation of the artist’s short but eventful life. ‘The comfort of strangers’, a digital print on archival paper by Anwar Saeed, shows two masked figures looking directly at each other, with a third figure in between.
Aasim Akhtar’s opaque, a photograph from behind a foggy glass with scratch marks, revealed only one side of his face. Naireen Ammar Zia used print media to portray a young girl in a Victorian frame. The pixels of the picture stretched badly. The photograph has an unmistakable expression of the high-tech contemporary life. Tehmina Ahmed took a ‘webcam view’ of herself.
Amin Gulgee’s ‘born this way’ was an installation made from crocodile’s skulls and painted steel. Gulgee kept the precious teeth of the crocodile intact and filled the eyes of the reptile with roses. The installation remained a piece of wonder on the opening day, and drew much attention from the crowd.
The exhibition is open till February 20.
Source: The News
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