Art show: Juxtaposition of the bold and the delicate
KARACHI: The force of the brush on canvas is what draws people’s attention. Artist Mukkarram Ali has experimented with different techniques of abstraction, sometimes subtle, other times bold, in his works displayed at Full Circle Gallery.
Ali, who is a professional artist and has been exhibiting his work for the last six years in different parts of the world, has experimented with the theme of divergence in his recent artwork. A look at his paintings reveals the boldness of colours, geometrical patterns and small delicate prints all woven together by a common thread of contrast.
“Contrast in treatment, style and gestural abstraction,” says Ali, while explaining the theme of his work to The Express Tribune. “On one hand you will see abstraction, while on the other you’ll also find calligraphy, which is an extremely controlled form of art,” he explained.
Usually an artist is inspired by a sudden thought or idea but for Ali it seems that the driving force behind this particular series of artwork was to experiment freely. One of the largest paintings in the gallery is brimming with loud colours and patterns. “It is not framed at all actually,” said Ali, talking about the uneven nature of the edging. “You have to keep the feel of the painting. The painting itself retains a shape of its own while it’s in the process of being created,” he said.
This brings Ali to the interesting concept of painting in motion. Through a mix of acrylics and collage, the artist has created 3D imagery in his work, all the while being careful not to give it a full form or sculptured look.
From hard, forceful and boldly colourful brush strokes, he moves on to delicate patterns enclosed in boxes and then to vertical streaks, sometimes all within a single painting. “For an artist, the most difficult part is to create movement in a still image,” he said. “Rather than a finished image, painting itself is a concept,” he explained, giving more importance to the process of creating the artwork than to the finished product.
The exhibition continues till March 1.
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