“Architecture is the learned game; correct and magnificent of forms assembled in the light”. - Le Corbusier.
The rise of new media, viewed by some as a threat to the future of traditional printmaking, has led Studio R.M and Adeel uz Zafar to conceive a show, which renews the investigation of traditional methods and known classical techniques. With these intentions, they have invited those rising and established artists, whose imagery and technical application already employ traditional techniques, to then utilize traditional printmaking methodologies to create original artworks.
A generational challenge has already been taken up and this idea has been explored in many major international projects in a global context. Youthfulness is a highly subjective topic and in the last years of boom, various artists came to the fore representing a new generation (young means under- 40). Based on the conviction that some of the most radical gestures in the art history have been carried out by the artists in early stages of their career, this curated exhibition, investigation or survey emphasizes the stars of tomorrow’s art scene who bring a myriad of visual culture influences in their art practice
Microcosm will bring insight into how this generation of artists experiencing and reinterpreting their attitude, identity, environment, tastes, sexualities and political learning through their artwork. This exhibition will offer a rich, intricate, multidisciplinary exploration of the work in a variety of media-ranging from drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, illustration, photography, video and few surprising mix.
This exhibition looks into the practices of artists as a means to record and archive ideas, emotions and experiences. The artist takes on the roles of the observer and the historian simultaneously. Their own experiences therefore define the editing of this particular archive.
Archives, as spaces of and catalysts for memory play a central role in society’s means of remembering.
In creating these archival documents artists are giving form to their own imagined realities. These ‘imagined realities’ may or may not have existed but are depicted in these visual narratives of grief, loss, joy and commemoration.
“Paradise Lost” explores the onerous political, religious and social constructs that have re-shaped the fabric of Pakistan over the decades; yet, despite the weighty subject matter, Zafar manages to expertly weave into his work the limitless curiosity, capriciousness, and hope which has come to characterise his artistic endeavours. The works occupy seven distinct sections of the gallery space, with each compartment acting as a sanctum giving voice to a whispered national confession; which calls into question our festering apathy and silent acquiescence in the face of increasing hostility.
From The Hills To The Sea II
Pouring concrete
Curing mountains
2019 , murree museum artist residency
Transformation of a hill town into an urbanized labyrinth endless production of concrete structures
hopeless degeneration of habitats
and forests.
A continuation of last year’s resident artist Madiha Aijaz’s project, who was interested in illegal grey structures encroaching upon the forests.
Featuring the works of Arif Mahmood, Faraz Aamer Khan, Hira Nabi, Noor us Saba Saeed and Zohreen Murtaza.
‘I Love You’
& Other Works From The AAN Collection
Featuring the works of
Bani Abidi, Khadim Ali, Aisha Khalid, Imran Qureshi
and Anushka Rustomji
The title for this exhibition has been borrowed from a video installation by the artist Bani Abidi which is titled ‘I Love You’ and which features the artists Rashid Rana, Imran Qureshi, Aisha Khalid, Asma Mundrawala and various other pronouncing this phrase silently.
This exhibition will delve into the elusive nature of these often repeated words from our vernacular. Words which are meant to exhibit the purest of emotion and are so potent with meaning, yet sometimes are threatened by their over usage in this digital age.
It will offer a glimpse into the AAN Collection with works by Bani Abidi, Khadim Ali, Aisha Khalid, Imran Qureshi which have been selected for this show as well as an in-situ installation especially created by Anushka Rustumji for this exhibition.
The exhibition is curated by Malika Abbas with Amna Naqvi serving as a curatorial advisor.
Microcosm III brings insight into how this generation of artists experiences and reinterprets identity, sexuality, enviornment and political learning through art.
This multidisciplinary exhibition includes drawing, painting, sculpture installation, photography, jewelry, video and more. The show has been curated by Adeel uz Zafar
and showcase 20 female artists.
“The kind of library is made for me. I can decide to pass a whole day there in bliss: I read the papers, take the books down to the bar, then I go to look for some more. I make my discoveries, having gone into work on say British Empiricism; I start to follow commentaries on Aristotle instead. On getting the floor wrong, I find myself in an area, I hadn’t thought to enter, on medicine, but then I suddenly find works on Galen and hence complete with philosophical references. In this sense the library becomes an adventure.”
- Umberto Eco
An essay by Umberto Eco titled "Di Bibliotheca" (The Library) which was read at a conference held in March 1981 on the 25th Anniversary of Bibliotheca Comunale in Milano at Palazzo Sormani. It was subsequently published in Quaderni di Palazzo Sormani in 1981
Cyra Ali, Onaiz Taji, Samya Arif and Sara Khan will be exhibiting in the first show. This exhibition is the second part of the series.
The exhibition is curated by Malika Abbas with Amna Naqvi serving as a curatorial advisor.
'If You Have A Garden In Your Library' .... I is the title of the show opening at AAN Gandhara Art Space on 11th April 2019. The point of departure for the show was a paragraph by Umberto Eco. “The kind of library is made for me. I can decide to pass a whole day there in bliss: I read the papers, take the books down to the bar, then I go to look for some more. I make my discoveries, having gone into work on say British Empiricism; I start to follow commentaries on Aristotle instead. On getting the floor wrong, I find myself in an area, I hadn’t thought to enter, on medicine, but then I suddenly find works on Galen and hence complete with philosophical references. In this sense the library becomes an adventure.”
An essay by Umberto Eco titled "Di Bibliotheca" (The Library) which was read at a conference held in March 1981 on the 25th Anniversary of Bibliotheca Comunale in Milano at Palazzo Sormani. It was subsequently published in Quaderni di Palazzo Sormani in 1981. Saba Khan, Wardha Shabbir, Mehreen Zuberi and Mohsin Shafi will be exhibiting in the first show. This exhibition is part of a two part series and Part II will follow this show.
"Depicture" seeks to address the transient nature of time-based media and calls upon the participating artists to contemplate the potentially non-archival quality of their work. Will their work remain accessible to viewers lets say, 50 years from now? The exhibition also seeks to consider the role of the artist while shaping intellectual and shared history; examining heritage through architectural spaces/dilapidated colonial buildings as well as new urbanism and its impact on quality of life and the destruction or lack of preservation of nature/natural landscapes and the sea due to urban development. All the artists in the exhibition are social practitioners, photographers and/or filmmakers and their work unfolds to the viewer over time in different ways. Artists featured in this exhibition include Aisha Abid Hussain, Ali Sultan, Iqra Tanveer, Jovita Alvares, Malika Abbas, Numair Abbasi, Nurjahan Akhlaq, Veera Rustomji. Curated by Alia Bilgrami
To curate was to be able to take ongoing conversations forward and to locate a wide range of journeys. Reading into work as opposed to showcasing it. What developed was a beautiful engagement by each artist into his or her concerns, articulated in unexpected form. Adeela Suleman, Affan Bhagpati, Marium Agha, Ruby Chishti and Tazeen Qayyum seemed to have seen or read “body” much beyond its physicality. The realization of “beholding”, being besotted. The object, a window to something else. And a world into itself.
The Show has been curated by Amra Ali.
Born in 1966, Roohi Ahmed graduated from the Karachi School of Art in 1992 and has largely worked and taught in Karachi, apart from brief sojourns in Australia from where she received her MFA at University of New South Wales in 2013 and multiple residencies in Bangladesh, Germany, UK and USA. In the 1990’s, Ahmed became influenced by other emerging practitioners who were engaging with the city and was involved as an early team member at VASL helping build it during its nascent stages in the late 1990’s. Ahmed’s practice evolved with exhibitions and projects both solo and in collaboration with other artists through the 2000’s and continues today.
The Distance Between Two Points examines the practice of Roohi Ahmed, a Karachi based artist who has worked in diverse mediums to explore overlapping concerns around nationhood, belonging, gender and the body.
'Who Gets To Talk About Whom' - Opens at Gandhara Art on 5th July, 2018, by investigating the recent surge of collaborative formats of artistic practice in Pakistan, the project aims to identify the root instigator(s) and need for new modes of representation by means of encounters and discourse.
Microcosm 2 has brought insight into how this generation of artists experiencing and reinterpreting their attitude, identity, environment, tastes, sexualities and political learning through their artwork. This exhibition offers a rich, intricate, multidisciplinary exploration of the work in a variety of media-ranging from drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, illustration, photography, video and few surprising mix.
‘Conversation with cold white surfaces’ was the first experience Aisha had when it came to Art Making. Starting from the blank white pages of a diary which is a symbol of keeping a day to day record of one’s pains and pleasures to the claustrophobic images filled with unreadable text spreading like a contagious virus. Starting from a very personal emotional turmoil it grew up to become a political comment such as ‘Personal is Political’.
A crucial aspect of her creative practice is working in an archival mode. The thought of exploring hidden treasures of narrative yet to be told excites her while digging for ancient documents, scripts, photographs and text. The images are static yet moving, the words say nothing but they breathe. It’s like weaving of a net or making of a cocoon with ultimate patience and sheer pleasure just as one’s develop a relationship or a spiritual contact. The lucidity in the free flowing forms is organic reminding one of body secretions as well. The works executed in liquid medium, reflects the obsessiveness with the process, a force to explode, a desire to break free from something tightly knotted. The heartbreaking ache for one’s own existence, the imbalance and crudeness of life constitute a mellow palette and mood.