Ejaz Galleries, Lahore, is all out to avail as well as create opportunities of interaction of artworks and artists between various countries. Recently, it wound up an exhibition of paintings by artists from Colombo; at the moment, it has taken artworks by established artists from Pakistan to Muscat to participate in a show organized by Muscat. The show opened on April 5, 2008. Works by a group of fifteen artists present a vibrant and diverse scene of Pakistan art at the show in Oman, capitol of Muscat. The exhibition is in support of Association of Early Intervention for Children with Special Needs established by official ministerial charter in 2000.
The Association serves children from birth to six years, who are at risk or disabled, with comprehensive early intervention programme that covers social, medical, physical, academic and therapeutic services. The objective is to enroll the children in regular schools or minimizes their disabilities to ensure a better quality of life for them and their families. The Association also undertakes an educational and advocacy role to improve social awareness of people with special needs.
The artworks taken to Muscat for the exhibition included calligraphy, miniature painting, figurative works, architectural landscapes, pigeons, horses, and landscapes with shanty dwellings executed with a variety of mediums.
Years of experimentation with chemicals and silver foil manipulated by Ahmed Khan's research and expertise has given contemporary meaning to calligraphy art. His luminous calligraphy paintings with unique compositions have quite a following by new artists.
Focusing on architecture, A.Q. Arif creates dreamy landscapes.
Aakif Suri graduated from the National College of Art in Miniature Painting with First Division in 2006. Since then, his work has been exhibited in Pakistan and in Hampstead Gallery, London. His personal modern interpretation of the traditional art of miniature painting has created a place for him in the art world.
Ali Azmat's current displays explore eunuchs - their life and emotions. Besides the drama of light and shade, there is richness of colour and texture on his canvases.
Asif Ahmed, a talented young contemporary miniature painter makes his presence felt in art circles. He graduated with Distinction from the National College of Art, Lahore, and was awarded the coveted Ustad Haji Sharif Award for excellence of his work.
Athar Jamal is an artist in the characteristic practice of watercolour painting. He is an exponent of spontaneous, 'on-spot' painting. He has been moving around to paint landscapes and scenes from life. He is renowned for the Thar series, focusing on the household of Thar.
The most celebrated artist of Pakistan, Gulgee, has no parallel. For five decades, the artist enjoyed appreciation in Pakistan and countries throughout the world. His passion overtook his training and distinction in engineering from Columbia University and Harvard, USA. His diverse works of art- sculptures, calligraphy, abstract, portraits and renditions in lapiz lazuli are a treasure to be valued.
Hajra Mansur is one of the most popular women artists in Pakistan. She performs with a modern sensibility on a traditional subject. Her work focuses on a stylized female form with plenty of jewellery and flowing garments. Her mastery of watercolours creates beautiful colour diversion. Her hues melt into each other, creating exquisite delicacy.
Pakistan's modern master Jamil Naqsh paints his emotions and thoughts in the form of pigeons, horses and women. A close study of pigeons has given him the expertise to paint thousands of pigeons, each with a different movement.
Mashkoor Raza's paintings are a versatile artist’s working in abstract, figurative or calligraphic methods. His strokes indicate vigor and dynamic symbolism. Throughout his career, he has maintained popularity at home and in exhibitions abroad. Mashkoor Raza was accorded the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz award for art in 2007.
Depicting multi-layered levels of delicate structures and human activity, the artist often takes one on a journey that reflects an experience of traditional album paintings where people live separate lives in close proximity.
Masood A. Khan is a true artist focusing on aesthetics. He explores the truth with delicate hues. He chooses a metaphysical value - the essence of truth - to paint. It is through transparency that truth can be experienced. He paints the truth about society. A painter of closely-knit shanty dwellings, with a subtle sensibility of colouration, he created walls through which can be seen what is happening next door. He also steps into the homes of the middle class and discovered that even the concrete walls are a sham. A secret is shared by all in the neighbourhood; anything that happens in a house traveled around.
Concerned about peace, R.M. Naeem's canvases reveal vibrant, dazzling and orating colours of red, green, blue, mauve, and white. With these impossible combinations, he creates what seems to be life emanating from waters. His figurative forms - heads and busts - are emerging from watery surfaces like lotus. Geometric forms also play their role to make symbolic objects. A religious mysticism prevails on every canvas taking the viewers' mind beyond the surfaces. R.M.'s works indicate his cultural, metaphysical, political and social awareness without compromising on the aesthete of a painting.
Saeed Akhtar is best known for his portraits. His current works focus on elegant gypsies and graceful jogis and elevates the two into characters of respect.
Sobia Ahmed, a graduate from NCA, is one of the contemporary miniature painters of Pakistan with a personal vocabulary.