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A Q Arif
Asma Abbasi
Dhoufishan Raza
Mughees Riaz
Qadir Jhatial
Schezre Syed
Shireen Ikram Ullah Khan
Tahir Ali
AS WE ROLL ALONG AS WE FROM ROLL ALONG MORNING FROM MORNING NIGHT TO TONIGHT
Satrang Gallery is an initiative of Serena Hotels Pakistan to encourage and promote talented artists in their pursuit of excellence
AS WE ROLL ALONG FROM MORNING TO NIGHT
As We Roll Along From Morning To Night
A.Q. Arif | Mughees Riaz | Tahir Ali | Shireen Ikram Ullah Khan | Asma Abbasi | Qadir Jhatial Schezre Syed | Dhoufishan Raza Satrang Gallery is proud to end a year filled with exciting and cutting edge shows, and welcome a new year full of possibilities and progress, with a group exhibition entitled As We Roll Along From Morning To Night, displaying the paintings of eight talented and multifaceted artists.
This show encapsulates the unique observational journey that each artist takes when creating a work of art. It presents a spectrum of colours, depictions and styles as these painters introduce their impressions of the world around them. Incorporating artworks that follow the tenants of movements ranging from Realism to Abstraction, this exhibition examines the layers of observation and portrayal. Inspired by their individual surroundings, these artists have translated their sensory inputs into pictorial masterpieces. Mughees Riaz and Asma Abbasi are dedicated to immersing themselves in nature. Both artists have skillfully captured the delicate details which cursory glances are unable to catch. Riaz has even included the mystical and elusive translucent haze of fog. Despite the clear similarities of subject matter, Riaz and Abbasi’s work contrasts visually with the abstract and textured works by Shireen Ikramullah Khan. Khan’s vivid depictions portray the intensity that she identifies in her surroundings. Artists like A.Q. Arif find built structures appealing. Arif works with historical architectural buildings that are time-worn and weathered. Utilizing minimum washes to bring out the constructions, Arif ’s work encapsulates the hidden secrets amidst the past lives of these monuments. Arif dulls the surrounding colours and emphasizes the texture of his subject matter. Like Arif, Tahir Ali alters the colour schemes of the landscapes and city views that he paints, but unlike Arif, Ali dilutes and transforms his inspiration into bare contours, shapes and lines. He then inverts the forms, colours and textures of his concepts, rendering them unrecognizable. Qadir Jhatial reduces his environment into bright colour blockings that form distinguishable scenes of city or domestic life. By playing with the colours of his pieces and the separation of figures, Jhatial encourages his viewer to re-identify and re-examine familiar sights. Dhoufishan Raza creates similar pieces when she fractures her natural arrangement into geometric shapes. Raza rearranges these individual shapes to create new configurations, as she delves deeper into the nuances of imagery. Finally Schezre Syed, like Raza, has utilized bold, geometric forms to imitate natural scenarios. Her precisely assembled pieces in their vibrant colour palettes assist in her quest to analyse space and form, and locate man’s place within them.
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A Q Arif A Q Arif born in Karachi, lives and works in Karachi Pakistan. Graduated in Fine Arts from Karachi School of Arts. I paint the glories of nature and magnificence of God. I believe that there is nothing unnatural on this earth.Through my work, I need people to understand the simple fact that we all need to appreciate the beauty and harmony given to us by God. Beauty is not only in vibrant colours and pretty things like flowers, peacocks and angelic creatures; it lies in the hands of man and in his heart. I have chosen architecture as my point of interest and I have shown the complexities as well as its simplicity side by side to compliment each other. I usually choose minimum colours and work in their tones, so that the attention of the viewer does not divert from my objective. I choose to use earthy tones and the various shades of the night sky because to me they depict our soul. So whether my depictions stretch from red fort in Agra to the glorious landscape in Jhelum to our very heart of the Mughal empire in Shahi Qila Lahore there are no boundaries. My choice of structures usually limit to famous buildings from the Mughal Empire, shrines of famous Aulia or even newer structures that show inspiration from the Mughal time period. The viewer undergoes a very serene and harmonious experience upon seeing my work due to its blissful equilibrium where time just stands still and one gets a moment to inhale the view and its tranquillity.
Jharoka of Rajisthan Oil on canvas 14 x14 inches
Heritage Mixed media on canvas 22 x28 inches
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Asma Abbasi Born in Karachi, lives and works in Islamabad. Asma Abbasi graduated from Swain School of Design, Maff, USA. “ The budding twigs spread out their fan, To catch the breezy air; And I must think, do all I can, That there was pleasure there.” William Wordsworth. To feel, to experience uninhibitedly…attempt to record as truly as one witnesses is the challenge of within. Asma Abbasi, trained at the Swain School of Design, Mass, USA. has exhibited her work both national and internationally. Married into the royal family of Bahawalpur, her husband’s great grandfather Nawab Sadiq Abbasi was the ruler of the princely state of Bahawalpur and the very first to join Pakistan at the time of partition. Understandably she held a solo show at the La Galleria Alliance France, 2008, tracing her family lineage with her work focusing on Bahawalpur, back to 1748, its grandeur, history and the beautiful architectural buildings painting with a personal feel and love for the region. Landscapes come naturally and painting them a regular habit. It’s a way of life, picking up the easel, paint box and then stepping out of the house. One would find her in a park or a quiet open space over looking the Margala hills. To her painting plein air, is challenging exhilarating and so rewarding. Painted alongside the Late Ghulam Rasul, landscape painter. Asma’s painting are peaceful, quiet, serene and compelling. “I came to live only to entice People to look at Nature’s surroundings loveliness My own special self is nothing I want to be like a flake of glass Through which light passes” John Muir
The barbed wire Oil on Canvas 20x22 inches
Orange leaves Oil on canvas 31x 45 inches
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Dhoufishan Raza Born in Islamabad, lives and works in Islamabad. Dhoufishan Raza completed MPhil from College of Arts and Design University of the Punjab Lahore. My work comprises of the idea that discovering things beyond materialism leads towards abstract representation of inner ambiguities. Experimentation with medium opens the way to explore new dimensions of imagery. My art centres on an arrangement of geometric forms with variety of colour scheme in order to create balanced compositions. It aims to depict the very purest forms. My work has also undergone many phases of development. The philosophy which I relate to my visual practice is that God has made this world obvious and apparent for some and abstractive and deep for others. It’s all about how an artist desires to depict his inner emotions in a way which he finds compatible to his mind and soul. But it’s the matter of discovering, carving and starving for the ultimate truth.
Untitled Oil on Paper 19x26.5 inches
Untitled Oil on Paper 11x14 inches
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Mughees Riaz Born in Lahore, lives and works in Lahore. Mughees Riaz graduated from College of Arts and Design University of the Punjab with a Masters in Fine Arts. My work is simple reflection of my inspiration. I always wanted to amalgamate nature with my inner feelings. Fascinated by nature, I always derive immense satisfaction and pleasure while capturing the wideness of sky, tranquillity of rivers and peace and serenity of the field. Buffaloes, crows, brown field, pink sky, specially “Sunset” always compels me to paint and express my love for nature and I pour my passion into these subject and return, “They become me”.
Sunset in Mist Oil on Canvas 24x20 inches
Waiting Buffalo Oil on canvas 22 x19 inches
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Qadir Jhatial Born in Hyderabad, lives and works in Lahore. Qadir Jhatial graduated from National College of Arts, Lahore. My work, inspired from the elements in my surroundings, is about a multiple levels of aesthetic inquiry. I transform the objects and environments around me into visuals of complex chromatic order. The interplay of space, surfaces, textures and materials, and the sensitive use of domestic and familiar items are sources for me to make my work personal and imaginative visual objects. My interest in exploring new ideas, mediums and methods of working has led me to experience a different visual vocabulary, especially flat colour paintings. Using this form of expression inspired me to study works of the theory of art and other concepts related to our aesthetic experiences.
Landscape, 2013 Enamel on canvas 30x48 inches
Landscape, 2013 Enamel on Canvas Triptych, 30x30 inches each
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Schezre Syed Born in Rawalpindi, lives and works in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Schezre Syed completed her Bachelors from National College of Arts Rawalpindi. Schezre Syed is Rawalpindi based artist, who majored in Printmaking from NCA (RWP). My work, ‘The Blind Print’, is a series of books. These books, or journals, live with the speed of life and then comment on how that speed impacts the human body and psyche. In an age where everyone is exposed to a heavy exchange of information on a daily basis (especially the superfluous visual culture), one finds their memory (as much as taking them in) obliterating images to create breathing space, and celebrating the bullet-paced lifestyle by trying to record “the drop of the hat” itself. I use an array of media to deconstruct the human condition and situations. Everyday objects become characters that bespeak stories of the ‘hour’, ‘minute’, ‘second’, and also, of emotion and understanding. The stories work separately, and with one another, to form photographs which ask viewers to bring their own experiences to the table.
Untitled Soultion Tape, Duct Tape, Paper on Photo Paper and Fabriano 8.25x11.5 inches
Untitled Sandpaper, pencil and punched hole on Fabriano 8.25x11.5 inches
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Shireen Ikram Ullah Khan Born in Islamabad, lives and works in Islamabad. Shireen Ikram Ullah Khan completed her Masters from University of Manchester, UK. “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures.” Henry Ward Beecher. One questions him/herself, who he/ she is, his/her surroundings, focus, anticipations, goals and experiences. Nature emotionally infiltrates me, it may not in the realistic sense but its surreal and dreamlike qualities and virtues do. I would refer to my paintings as abstract landscapes of the human mind, body and nature’s landscapes in the literal appreciation. An infusion of colour in stark oranges, reds, yellows and blues is perceived to be volatile and unpredictable yet some factors define tranquillity. Being stuck in a world full of dos and don’ts, rights and wrongs all governed by social norms and patterns, delving into a domain of contrasting embankments and forces of nature, my inner human world closely resembles the outer natural world. This is my inspiration to be creative.
Subconcious Analysis (Blue, Orange and in-between series) Mixed media on canvas on board 37x25 inches
Subconcious Analysis (Blue, Orange and in-between series) Mixed media on board 35x33 inches
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Tahir Ali Born in Hyderabad, lives and works in Lahore. Tahir Ali completed his Bachelors from National College of Arts, Lahore. My work is created by gestures, expressive lines and intuitive colour choices. It is not an observational record, but contains elements of an emotional experience that I feel is there in nature. Forms and rhythm play an active role in my process, and subtle palettes of colour create a moving and restless balance. The act of assembling, selecting and collecting found objects and mediums develops the final image. The paintings play with the 2 dimensionality of a canvas - some explore and enhance the flatness of the surface, while others create an illusion of 3 dimensional depths through multiple layering, imagination and mark making. There are familiar objects and things present in the imagery, accompanied by a simultaneous feeling that dismisses their recognition.
Untitled, 2013 Mixed media on canvas 24x36 inches
Untitled, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 32 x32 inches
Satrang Gallery Asma Rashid Khan- Director Schezre Syed - Gallery Assistant Dhoufishan Raza - Gallery Assistant
satrang.ish@serena.com.pk |
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