“Superman” as we know today follows the conceptual premise conceived by Friedrich Nietzsche in his philosophical centerpiece, Thus Spake Zarathustra, where he presents the concept of Ubermensch. As introduced in the popular culture by DC Comics, Superman is an idea of a physically superior being, possessing super natural powers such as speed, stren [...]
A few weeks ago I was asked to write about public art, possibly because of my affiliation with the Tentative Collective and our intermittent art experiments, often situated outside the gallery. I said yes without hesitation, only to discover a paralysis in zooming out of my own practice to reflect on what public art is. For an artist working in dif [...]
It was 2009 when I was first introduced to the Neo-Miniature in Pakistan. I was a first year student at Brandeis University, and enrolled in Introduction to Drawing. I was the only South Asian student in the class, and my excited professor asked if I knew who Shahzia Sikander was.
I replied with a blank stare. I had never heard of the name. It w [...]
Noorjehan Bilgrami: The Avant-Garde
Noorjehan Bilgrami in her Sri Lanka studio.
A painter, textile designer, gallery owner, entrepreneur, curator, researcher, educationist and a social a [...]
In Conversation with Salima Hashmi
Salima Hashmi is an acclaimed artist, writer and the Founding Dean of the School of Visual Arts & Design at the Beaconhouse National University, L [...]
Tazeen Qayyum: The Anatomy of Discomfort
There is a price to pay for apathy. One thinks of poor Gregor in Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’, who wakes up as a giant cockroach, unable to act and eventua [...]
Iqbal Geoffrey: The Incredible Artist of Our Times
“I took two hundred drawing to Ali Imam and asked him to pick 100, which he thought were the best. He chose one hundred works on paper. Then I a [...]
The word ‘techne’, translated as: art, skill, or cunning of hand, perhaps best summarises the programming of the Digital Anthropocene Age, replete with the urge to necessitate order out of chaos. In contemporary oracular fashion, cultural imports create avenues for political defiance, revolutions broadcast across social media, and a resurgence of n [...]
Amina El-Edroos’s ‘The Neighbourhood’, comprising of 16 photographs printed on lustre paper, is the artist’s first solo exhibition. Wide whitewashed walls of 8 B 2, Islamabad’s newest art gallery are the perfect backdrop for her emotive images; some candidly presented moments while others offering boosted effect through pixilation, double exposure, [...]
True to form, my first interview with Ujala Khan, M4HK and Scheherezade Junejo at Full Circle Gallery, the afternoon ahead of the opening day of the exhibition, was an exercise in appreciative and critical reverse-engineering. Given the spectacular scale of work, the nature of the materials and high-frequency visuality of the body of work at hand, [...]
If you have tears
'If you have tears' is a group show curated by a veteran art critic Quddus Mirza. A wonderful curation in May was conceived around the idea [...]
Microcosm 4
Opened at AAN Gandhara Gallery, Microcosm 4 brought a number of established and budding artists together. The group show, held at [...]
Ambivalence
A solo show by Waseem Ahmed opened at Sanat Initiative on April 6th, 2021 represented a powerfully evocative array of paintings on display. [...]
Past Present Future
Past Present Future is the inaugural show that marks the beginning of Koel Gallery & O Art Space’s collaborative venture. The significance of this [...]