ART FACTS: The captured moments

The artworks in collages and mixed media on paper tied the thoughts of viewers into their deep images where people ponder over the futility of life in a three-person show titled "Paper, Picture, Perfect" at the Canvas Gallery, Karachi. The show included the artworks by Lahore based artists Mahbub Shah, Anwar Saeed and Afshar Malik. These are known artists and Anwar Saeed and Afshar Malik are related to our local art world for more than three decades. They are also alumni of the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore.
Anwar Saeed's paintings discussed the human nature and their relationships with other human being, with Nature, with its surrounding, with non-living objects and with living things. He described the complex nature of relationships and captured different happy, sad and odd moments in life of a person on his canvas.
He used symbols to emphasize on his theme. He portray daily lives of people who interact with each other and surrounding objects and environment on regular basis but they may or may not like to interact with all the persons and things they came across everyday. Cupid, fish, vegetables, cat and tiger were some of the symbols recur in his paintings.
His paintings were interesting, seductive, alluring and contriving. One can understand his point of view by going through the titles of his paintings such as "Body and the Things that Live in it", "Writer of the Dangerous Love Stories", "Song of Emptiness of all You don't Need", "A Dream about Travelling with a Familiar Stranger", "Echoes of the Organic Self", "Love is a Carnivorous Plant", "Man is a Collector of Nature", and "Our Lady of the Unfulfilled Desire".
Explosion of colours welcome viewers in Afshar Malik's mixed media works. He used innumerable shades of colours to make his point of view over the past many years. He uncovered his subject in his paintings one by one just like a story teller sometimes creating suspense and the other time create horror.
His images were soft and loud at the same time. He captured the moments of daily lives of people around him dear and near to him including himself. He portrayed his own life also along with people he know and inter connect during different moments of day to day life. He talked about both the bright and light side of life and dark and shadowy side of life. These are the two sides of a coin and one has to live with it. The title of his paintings "On the Wall Between", "One's Blessed Window", "Short Story of the Day" and "Which one of You is Me" clearly explain what he wanted to discuss with the viewers.
In a series of paper collages titled `After Spectacle` Mahbub Shah paid tribute to the world of sport. He made various impressive performances on display by capturing them in his works. The unusual moments on the field were captured artistically by the artist for the viewers. His works became witness of the especial moments worth remembering and noticing. His works were like comments for the players he recorded in his works.
The works were representation of cricket, football and boxing matches. By using circles and zoom in and zoom out technique he created illusions that attract viewers. Thus they provide an insight into a competitive and cut-throat field situation among the players of two opponent teams. Both happy and sad moments were part of his series.
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