May it be the cosmic currents of sound caused by the Big Bang or the concept of Kun Fayakun in Islam, may it be the Gospel of John describing ‘In the beginning was the word…’
or the Vedas explaining the Shabda Brahma, in fact Plato’s theory of ideas can also be taken into account to see the commonalities among these powerful statements coming from various directions. One thing for sure is important and that is ‘Sound’ which took visual form as ‘Word’!
Sounds and their representational forms are secretive in nature for they are layered with multiple connotations, one should pay attention and be selective of the sounds and words one dwells around. Words are like mysterious geometric patterns, the moment you try and decode them, they lead you to new expeditions, weave patterns, tell stories, awaken memories, create sensation and excavate a buried and long forgotten chapter of your life.
We may generally undervalue the spoken word but history proves that we tend to fear and believe in the written one. The written word has authority of its own and only a few dare to deal with it. In this exhibition, you will witness the encounters of such brave and distinguished contemporary artists working with text. It also includes the artworks of masters and old manuscripts from 16th century courtesy of prominent collectors (for viewing only). Simultaneously, the show reflects our shared history, appreciation and amazement to the scripture and all its creative forms. These contemporary and Islamic era works formed with text depict the strong connections that this region has with the rest of the world from cultural, religious and political standpoint.
Shah Abdullah Alamee
Shah Abdullah Alamee graduated from the National College of Arts (NCA) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2012. He was a recipient of the Haji Shareef Award, NCA’s highest
accolade of achievement in miniature painting. His miniature works have been part of Maktab in Lahore Biennial 2018, Maktab II QUAD Museum Derby, UK, 2019 and Billboard Project, Lahore Biennial, 2020. He was part of Faiz Festival Alhamra, Lahore 2017 and 2019 and did a performance titled “For the bloom of one branch is what we are” 2023.
He did solo show at LUMS titled “If the Self Suffer Exile in 2020 and group show “Tapestry of Fading Gardens” at 1×1 Gallery, Dubai, UAE 2020. He did live Calligraphy Performance at First Islamic Biennale, Jeddah, KSA, 2023 and many more. He is also the recipient of “Nigaah” Art Award in the category of Contemporary Calligraphy, 2023.
Shah Abdullah Alamee graduated from the National College of Arts (NCA) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2012. He was a recipient of the Haji Shareef Award, NCA’s highest accolade of achievement in miniature painting. His miniature works have been part of Maktab in Lahore Biennial 2018, Maktab II QUAD Museum Derby, UK, 2019 and Billboard Project, Lahore Biennial, 2020. He was part of Faiz Festival Alhamra, Lahore 2017 and 2019 and did a performance titled “For the bloom of one branch is what we are” 2023.
He did solo show at LUMS titled “If the Self Suffer Exile in 2020 and group show “Tapestry of Fading Gardens” at 1×1 Gallery, Dubai, UAE 2020. He did live Calligraphy Performance at First Islamic Biennale, Jeddah, KSA, 2023 and many more. He is also the recipient of “Nigaah” Art Award in the category of Contemporary Calligraphy, 2023.
Imran Baloch
Born in Quetta, Imran Baloch started his professional practice as commercial signboard painter. He then graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Baluchistan in 2015 and later
on earned his Master’s degree in Visual Art from the prestigious National College of Arts, Lahore in 2021. Coming a long way into contemporary art, he has participated in many national exhibitions and has conducted different calligraphic workshops.
Imran’s work is about language recognition. He believes that the use of Urdu language is decreasing day by day in recent time and our identity is being compromised. He makes words out of clay. His medium (clay) and the various stages it goes through in the process plays an important role in expressing his concept. He finds it similar to the evolution of a language which goes through a constant process of shaping and reshaping due to various, geographical, social, cultural, religious.
Abid Aslam
Born in 1986, Abid Aslam graduated from Hunerkada College of Visual and Performing Arts Lahore and did his masters in Visual Art from the prestigious National College of Arts in
2017. He is the recipient of Arjumand Painting Award 2015 and Special Award from Artist’s Association of Punjab 2016. He attended the first Karachi Biennale Trust Artist Residency ‘Orangi Pilot Project’ in 2019 and was one of the resident artists at Can Serrat Barcelona, Spain in 2023. He was also represented by Anant Art Gallery Delhi in India Art Fair 2017.
Aslam has developed his independent art style with a critical debate on contemporary art over many years of constant research and innovation. He has widely exhibited his works nationally and internationally. His stunning solos include: ‘Coding Labels’ at Canvas Gallery Karachi in 2013, “Sitaron se aage” at Sanat Initiative Karachi in 2018, “Of Land and Skies” at O Art Space Lahore in 2019, “The Last Rain” at Sanat Initiative Karachi in 2020 and “The Look” at Sanat Initiative Karachi in 2022. “Peculiar Speculations”, “Self-Extended”, The Smog Show”, “Khat-o-Kitabat”, “Uncurated” and “The Factory” are his other notable exhibitions. Among his prominent group shows are: Incubator, Milestone, Open field, Variations along the Grid, Silsila, I live Pakistan, Witness to History, Human Within Us, Solitude, Resurgence, Scripted Serenity and Grey Matters.
Aslam currently works and lives in Lahore.
Fazil Mousavi
Born in 1957, Fazil Hussain Mousavi is a visual artist and educator, graduated in 1988 from the University of Balochistan, Quetta. The city which proudly hosts several of his public
art projects. He curated shows and conducted workshops for art teachers on voluntary basis from 2003 to 2006. His efforts for Art Education in Quetta led him to establish an unorthodox Art Education Center named ‘Sketch Club Quetta’ in 2008, where he dedicated himself to teaching and curating the club’s annual shows.
Mousavi has exhibited in Museum Villem Van Haren, Holland in 2007 and is the first ever Hazara to perform Shahnameh singing at Sharjah Biennale 2019. Along with his Sketch Club student’s he exhibited at the Human Rights Festival 2020 hosted by Oxford Brookes University, UK. In 2021 he had a Solo show and performance of Shahnameh singing at Gurmani Center for Languages & Literature LUMS, Lahore and in 2022 had a Solo show at Pakistan National Council of the Arts, PNCA Islamabad. He participated in the 11th annual Ras Al Khaimah Fine Arts Festival RAKFAF, UAE in 2023, followed by another participation in the “Quetta Art Fair” organized by THE RED TAG ART FORUM at the University of Balochistan, Quetta. Mousavi has contributed in the field of education at Beaconhouse School System (1989-1992) and Iqra Army Public School and College (1992-2008).
Mousavi divides his time between the activities at Sketch Club and his art practice. He lives and works in Quetta.
Ghulam Mohammad
Born in Kachi, Balochistan, Ghulam Mohammad is the first ever Pakistani visual artist who won ‘Jameel Art Prize 4 from the Victoria and Albert Museum London in 2016. He
graduated on Scholarship of UMISA in B. FA from the Beaconhouse National University Lahore with a distinction in 2013. During his student days, he was selected for Inspire Trip to University of Central Lancashire (student exchange program under British Council). He did his Masters in Art Education from BNU Lahore in 2017.
He has widely exhibited in group and solo exhibitions and explores the relationship between language and identity in a cultural, historical & contemporary context through his work. He has done an artist residency in a UAE Art Hub and Sanat Karachi Pakistan. In 2015 he won the Young emerging Artist Prize from Lahore Literary Festival. He was the judge for Bahrain Annual Fine Art Exhibition in Bahrain January, 2017. In 2018 he was a jury member of Jameel Art Prize ‘5’ at Victoria & Albert Museum.
He lives and works in Lahore and currently teaching as Assistant Professor in Fine Arts Department, Beaconhouse National University Lahore.
Shiblee Muneer
Born in Jhang, Shiblee Muneer hails from a family of artists where miniature painting has been practiced for centuries. Muneer’s great-great-grandfather, Allah Ditta founded the
princely painting workshop at Patiala where the so-called ‘Pahari’ style of miniature painting developed under his guidance. Allah Ditta’s grandson, and Muneer’s grandfather, Haji Mohammad Sharif (1889-1978) was an internationally known painter who worked under the patronage of Maharajah Bhupinder Singh and later on headed the Miniature Department at Mayo School of Arts (now National College of Arts, Lahore) where he developed the first curriculum for teaching miniature painting.
Muneer caries on the centuries-old family tradition of miniature painting with all its philosophical and technical aspects and has earned his degrees from the Naqsh School of Arts and Beaconhouse National University. He is currently doing his Ms. leading to Ph.D. in studio practice at the University of Punjab.
While carrying forward the tradition, Muneer finds inspiration in post-modernist philosophy and new techniques. His experiments convey 21st-century messages so brilliantly that they gained him a place on the list of “Asia’s 10 Most-Inspiring Visual Artists” according to the Top 10 of Asia magazine in 2014. He was awarded as best contemporary painter of Pakistan by Niagaah Art Awards in 2023.
Muneer also lectures at the Institute of Visual Arts & Design at Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) and curates exhibitions. He lives and works in Lahore.
Mohammad Ali Talpur
Born in 1976 in Hyderabad, Mohammad Ali Talpur graduated in Fine Arts from National College of Arts in 1998. He completed the Khoj International Public Art Residency New
Delhi and Vasl Artist Residency in Karachi in 2006 and 2005 respectively. He was awarded the M.D. Taseer Scholarship at the NCA in Lahore.
Talpur has exhibited his ‘Alif’ series works in solo shows at Latitude 28 Gallery India 2014, Canvas Gallery Karachi 2013, Green Cardamom London 2012, and ‘Leeka’ series at Art & Public Geneva2008, X.V.A. Gallery Dubai 2008, Gallery Space London 2007, and at Zahoor-Ul-Akhlaque Gallery Lahore 2004. Some of the prominent group exhibitions in which his work has featured are ‘Dhaka Art Summit’, Latitude 28 booth 2014, ‘Crossing Over’ at Latitude 28 New Delhi in 2013, ‘Drawn from Life’ at Abbot Hall Art Gallery Kendal in 2011, ‘Resemble/Reassemble’ at Devi Art Foundation Gurgaon in 2010, ‘Fathay Jay Aassay Paassey’ at V.M. Art Gallery Karachi in 2010, ‘The Rising Tide: New Directions in Art from Pakistan 1990–2010’ at Mohatta Palace Museum Karachi in 2010, ‘Mashq: repetition, meditation, mediation’ and ‘Drawn from Life: Drawing Process’ at Green Cardamom London in 2009 and 2008 respectively, Pakistani Pavillion Dubai Art Fair in 2008, and ‘Orients sans Frontieres’ Espace Louis Vuitton Paris. His works are in various public collections including British Museum, Queensland gallery and Devi Art foundation.
Ahsan Javaid
Graduated in Fine Arts (Painting) from National College of Arts, Lahore in 2015. Within this very year, Ahsan’s work got selected for ‘India art award 2016’ and he participated in
‘FIRST KBT-OPP Artists Residency’ and ‘Climate Change and Art – A Practitioner’s Retreat’ art residency in swat. He also attended ‘Capacity Building and Knowledge Transfer on Preventive Preservation and Basic Conservation of Art in Pakistan’ in the same year. He is a resident artist at studio RM and teaches drawing as well. Ahsan has also been awarded with Arjumand Painting award 2021. He has been exhibiting his work in various shows with in the country. Javaid lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan.
Faizan Riedinger
Born in 1988, Faizan Riedinger is a German-Pakistani visual artist and musician. His work has been featured in solo shows and collectives locally and internationally, and has
been acquired by the Islamic Art Museum Malaysia in 2022.
Riedinger’s art is rooted in his love for the Arabic alphabet and script. He works fastidiously and meticulously, using architect’s pens on canvas to create calligraphic-inspired motifs that are minute and identical in size, and which combine to form geometric shapes. Sometimes monochrome and on other occasions created in a combination of contrasting colours, the pieces have a calming, understated and hypnotic quality about them that aligns with their creator’s artistic process. He finds satisfaction in the self-imposed limitations and restrictions that are a key part of the process in his art. Riedinger thinks “hyper-minimalism” may best describes his work, since it looks minimal but once examined closely, is full of detail. The elements in his work have to be exact, which can be frustrating, and the nature of his method is highly repetitive, but when one steps back and see the work in its entirety, it’s incredibly satisfying.
Riedinger lives and works in Karachi, Pakistan.
Samara Shahid
Born in 1995, Samara Shahid is a Lahore based visual artist. She completed her M.Phil in Art and Design from Punjab University in 2020 and Bachelor’s in fine arts from Lahore
College for Women University in 2016 with Gold Medal and Distinction. Her passion for calligraphic art and sculptural forms led her to merge the two, and explore innovative forms of art. The selection of everyday utensils as her base medium gives her work an entirely unexpected twist and these everyday objects initiate a dialogue with their viewers, making them think about how the simplicities of life are layered with complex philosophical paradoxes. She has been actively exhibiting in numerous galleries of Pakistan. Shahid is currently working as Lecturer of Fine Arts in the University of Home Economics.
