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Soul of feminism in black and white at Nomad

By Mahtab Bashir

ISLAMABAD: A collection of well-executed paintings by four established artists has been brought together presenting an amalgamated theme of spirituality and feminism on Monday at Nomad Art Gallery. The exhibition is opening for public viewing today (Tuesday).

Nahid Raza, Akram Dost Baloch, Humera and Zia Zaidi are the highly respected artists, who have tried to highlight developing dimensions in feminism, focusing on spirituality.

Using medium of pastel on paper, acrylic on canvas, and mix media, the painters dedicated to express their spiritual and experimental emotions in a vibrant way. Their strokes are often expressive of turbulence in a sensitive hyperactive mind but overall impact of the finished paintings is that of an artwork that brightens up life.

Zia Zaidi, in his collection of five mix media paintings titled ‘The Soul Mate’, has depicted his non-physical experiences about love and life as an ongoing process through ages of his ancestors.

Talking to Daily Times, Zaidi said, “Believing in inner truth and guidance, I am a traveler in this amazing journey. There are ups and downs, happiness and love, hatred and animosity but still I can see every effort is inclined after all towards peace and inner satisfaction.”

Humera’s cache of six exquisite paintings titled ‘Sacred Spectra’ is figurative and non-figurative in many ways.

“I find myself greatly inspired by the Buddhist way of praying. Silently, they write their prayers on a piece of paper that is wrapped in cloth and is hung to a tree or sent out into the seas, symbolising a release for their prayers to be answered,” she said.

Humera, whose work has been extensively displayed in and out of country, said, “If every prayer is an expression of a life story, then every art piece that I have created is a piece of my life. My work speaks of my gradual collapse into my darker self due to my deteriorating health, yet without my ‘slip’ after the earthquake I would never have raised and found fresh layers that I depicted in my work.”

Akram Dost Baloch’s work reflects the last generation of politically conscious artists who have expressed their anger against state policies. In his present collection, Dost reveals a mood in which his oppressed subjects form a narrative abstraction.

Deeply concerned with environmental and social issues, Dost expresses his views that range in scale from almost miniature to mural size.

Going through an experimental phase, Nahid Raza, a senior feminist artist playing with emotions, has used colours simply and ingeniously to make a statement. There is a depth in her recent work and the imagery provokes strong response in her four paintings.

In a statement available to this scribe, Nahid Raza, a recipient of Pride of Performance award, said her work was focusing on woman as a symbol of purity and spirituality, using black and white colours. “I used black with woman to show how spiritual element of this universe she is, white colour is showing purity and depth of woman. These symbiotic colours show deep and sensitivity attached to woman,” she said. The exhibition will continue till October 20.

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