Grosvenor Gallery is pleased to present its upcoming exhibition, Present Re-Inventions, in association with Canvas Gallery, Karachi, to run from the 11th to the 27th October 2014.
The show features new works by three exciting and challenging artists from Pakistan; Irfan Hasan, Muzzumil Ruheel and Muhammad Zeeshan.
The painter Irfan Hasan was born in Karachi in 1982, and was trained at the National College of Art, Lahore, graduating with a degree in miniature painting in 2006. For the last ten years, Hasan's work has been stimulated by realism, and the work of Da Vinci and Rodin. These works have been created in homage to European classical portraiture, and the practice of stylisation in Indo-Persian miniature painting, through the synthesis of classical imagery and traditional miniature painting techniques.
Muzzumil Ruheel was born in Lahore in 1985. He graduated in 2009 as a visual artist from the Beacon House National University. Ruheel's work is about metaphorical interpretations. His work is about sugarcoated reality bites; investigating perceptions about social to mundane events usually based on their documented narratives. Within these accounts, one can only decipher text, but not its meaning; just like carefully chosen diplomatic words historians use to brand the past. Ruheel's work explores tales within the intricate mesh of calligraphic text written over found images from a bygone era; an era that he tries to awaken.
The contemporary miniaturist Muhammad Zeeshan was born in Mirpurkhas, Pakistan in 1980, and trained at the NCA in Lahore, graduating in 2003 with a degree in miniature painting. His recent work combines traditional miniature painting techniques, with 21st century laser technology, to create extremely detailed and delicate depictions of a range of subjects. Zeeshan uses lasers to score the paper and is currently the only artist working in this extremely high-tech medium. His works tread the thin line between found imagery and the originality ascribed to the unique hand of the artist, prompting the spectator to reflect upon and call into question the connotations attached to strict distinctions between both. Zeeshan's works in this way push boundaries of self-referentiality in art works to contemplate the nature of images and visual sensibilities.