Welcome to August issue !
I am pleased to share that this month’s issue is dedicated to the Vasl Artists Association.
For twenty-five years, Vasl has created a space for artists to meet, work, exchange ideas and, importantly, to spend time with one another. Established in Karachi in 2001, Vasl began as part of the Triangle Network and gradually developed into one of the most significant platforms for artistic exchange in Pakistan. Its residencies have brought together artists from Pakistan and from across the world, allowing Karachi to become not simply a destination but a place of research, conversation and artistic discovery.
This issue of ArtNow Pakistan is dedicated to Vasl because its contribution cannot be understood through exhibitions alone. A residency is often about what happens before an artwork takes shape: conversations, walks through a city, encounters with people, uncertainty, research and the freedom to experiment. Vasl has consistently valued that process. Its programmes have included residencies, workshops, exhibitions, collaborations, publications, Art Study sessions and Art Talks, creating an environment in which artists, writers and audiences can come together.
The organisation’s Museum Series is another important part of this continuing practice. From the Museum of Blue and Museum of Abandoned Spaces to Museum of Repair, Museum of Sound, Museum of Unseen and the more recent Museum of Debris, these projects demonstrate Vasl’s interest in taking art beyond conventional exhibition formats and into questions of place, memory, history and contemporary life.
At the centre of this story is Adeela Suleman, founding member and director of Vasl. Suleman’s own practice as an artist is deeply engaged with history, violence, memory and the everyday, while her work at Vasl has been concerned with creating opportunities for other artists. She has been instrumental in developing the organisation’s residencies and international exchanges and, over the years, has helped sustain Vasl as a space for dialogue and experimentation.
In this issue, ArtNow Pakistan’s Editor Quddus Mirza speaks with Adeela Suleman in an exclusive video interview, offering a more personal and direct view of her journey, her thinking and her long association with Vasl. Alongside the interview, a written profile by Haroon Shuaib covers Suleman’s journey from another perspective. Together, these pieces allow us to see both the artist and the institution-builder, and the relationship between the two.
The photo essay is drawn from the Vasl archives, in many ways, a visual record of the organisation’s history — of artists who passed through its doors, projects that took shape here, and moments that might otherwise remain only in the memories of those who were there. Archives are not simply repositories of the past; they tell us what a community has considered worth remembering.
Jabeen Qadri’s In Focus essay takes us toward another important aspect of Vasl’s work, looking at the Taza Tareen residencies and the possibilities created through such programmes. Her essay reminds us that an artist residency is not only about providing a studio or a temporary place to work. It can create a framework for learning, exchange and new ways of thinking.
Umer Sheikh delves deeper into Vasl’s story, reviewing recent exhibitions at the Vasl Gallery while also offering a glimpse into the work and experiences of its artists-in-residence.
Quddus Mirza’s editorial adds yet another layer to this issue, while our reviews by our contributors from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad bring the conversation back to the wider art landscape. These reviews, alongside the essays and features, are deliberately varied. They allow us to move between institutions, artists, exhibitions, cities and ideas rather than looking at contemporary art from a single point of view.
This is ultimately what we hope this issue will do: not simply celebrate Vasl, but look at what it has made possible.
In a country where artists have often had to create their own spaces, networks and opportunities, institutions such as Vasl matter. They provide continuity. They create connections across generations and geographies. They allow artists to take risks, and they preserve the traces of those encounters for others to discover later.
Vasl’s story is therefore also a story of contemporary art in Pakistan — of artists travelling, meeting, arguing, collaborating, making and remaking. It is a story of Karachi as a place of artistic exchange, and of the people who have continued to believe that art needs spaces where ideas can remain open.
We are pleased to dedicate this issue to that story.
Stay tuned to a lot more from the art world
Bye for NOW !