FRESH! 64 Pakistani Artists, 30 and Under Amin Gulgee Gallery Karachi March 2014 Curated by Raania Azam Khan Durrani Saba Iqbal Amin Gulgee Amin Gulgee Gallery Amin Gulgee launched the Amin Gulgee Gallery in the spring of 2002, was titled Uraan and in 2000 with an exhibition of his own sculpture, was co-curated by art historian and founding Open Studio III. The artist continues to display editor of NuktaArt Niilofur Farrukh and gallerist his work in the Gallery, but he also sees the Saira Irshad. A thoughtful, catalogued survey need to provide a space for large-scale and of current trends in Pakistani art, this was an thematic exhibitions of both Pakistani and exhibition of 100 paintings, sculptures and foreign artists. The Amin Gulgee Gallery is a ceramic pieces by 33 national artists. space open to new ideas and different points of view. Later that year, Amin Gulgee himself took up the curatorial baton with Dish Dhamaka, The Gallery’s second show took place in an exhibition of works by 22 Karachi-based January 2001. It represented the work created artists focusing on that ubiquitous symbol by 12 artists from Pakistan and 10 artists of globalization: the satellite dish. This show from abroad during a two-week workshop in highlighted the complexities, hopes, intrusions Baluchistan. The local artists came from all and sheer vexing power inherent in the over Pakistan; the foreign artists came from production and use of new technologies. countries as diverse as Nigeria, Holland, the US, China and Egypt. This was the inaugural In 2003, Amin Gulgee presented another major show of Vasl, an artist-led initiative that is part exhibition of his sculpture at the Gallery, titled of a network of workshops under the umbrella Charbagh: Open Studio IV. This was followed of the London-based Triangle Arts Trust. a year later by a one-man show dedicated to Italian creator Gino Marotta, one of the fathers The third show at the Gallery, which took place of contemporary design and environmental art. Page 5, Top Page 5, Bottom Imag[IN]ing Cities, Riwhyti One Night Stand: An February 2011 Evening of Performance Art Amin Gulgee Gallery January 2013 Amin Gulgee Gallery The Gallery’s sixth and seventh shows were a And in January 2013, the Amin Gulgee Gallery pair co-curated by Amin Gulgee and Karachi- hosted two shows. The first was an exhibition of based artist and art critic Sheherbano Hussain. Amin Gulgee’s latest body of work, Open Studio For these shows, the two curators asked V: Through the Looking Glass, the first major over 30 artists from across Pakistan to create showing of his sculpture in Karachi in a decade. one work inspired by Islamic calligraphy, and The show travelled later that year to New Delhi, another inspired by the human body. The India and is documented by a catalogue. back-to-back exhibitions were accompanied by the publication of twin scholarly catalogues Open Studio V was followed up a week later by bearing the exhibitions’ titles, Artists’ Voices: a curatorial effort at the Gallery by Amin Gulgee. Calligraphy and Artists’ Voices: Body (Oxford Called Riwhyti: One Night Stand, this happening University Press, 2006). was a two-hour, simultaneous enactment of 23 performance works by more than 30 Karachi- That same year, the Gallery hosted the exhibition based artists, an unprecedented event in 18@8: Kuala Lumpur to Karachi, which was Pakistan, where performance art is an emerging curated by the eminent gallerist Lim Wei-Ling field. Rumana Hussain and Amra Ali, senior and was accompanied by a catalogue. The show editors of NuktaArt, wrote in Volume 8-ONE- highlighted contemporary works in multiple 2013 of that publication, “Like a chain of human media from the urban heart of Malaysia. energy, the Performance Night was a profusion of experiences and gestures that tested the Imag[IN]ing Cities marked the Gallery’s entry limits of where art began and ended, or if there into the second decade of our new century. For was an end. In many ways, it questioned the this exhibition, the Amin Gulgee Gallery joined conventional frame of representation and its forces with SPARCK, a pan-African program of viewership, intervening in the dynamics of art to cutting edge artists’ residencies, exhibitions, society.” publications, film and video productions and performances that was founded in 2007 FRESH! is the Gallery’s latest project. by Cape Town-based artist and academic Kadiatou Diallo and Paris-based art historian Dominique Malaquais. An exhibition of video, John McCarry, a graduate of Yale University, is photography and sound pieces by over 50 a free-lance writer whose articles have appeared artists from across Pakistan and the breadth in National Geographic and GEO, among other of the African continent, this was the first-ever, publications. He has served as coordinator of the large-scale encounter between new media Amin Gulgee Gallery since its inception in 2000. artists from Africa and South Asia. 4 5 Finding FRESH! The artist has to be thirty years of age, or Pakistani artist. It also represents the beginning quietness and mystery is found in the work of and hard work. For me personally FRESH! was under, this is what we began looking for and of a movement where artist are looking inwards Fariha Taj, Arsalan Nasir and Shakila Haider. about having the opportunity to work so closely now several months later, we found FRESH! and creating work which is reaching out to Differing in style and moving away from this with so many young, skilled, professional and We found the creative voice and the visual a collective global identity. The art raises gentle pondering, are artists like Shabir Ahmed promising Pakistani artists, and being a part language of a critical mass of Pakistani artists, questions which address gender, politics, Baloch, Hasan Jafer, Samra Roohi, Alee Hasan, of their journey. The curators are proud to specifically those who are at a turning point in nation and creative freedom. Sikander Butt and Suleman Aqueel Khilji. Their represent all 64 artists of FRESH! their careers, ready to take off and make their works are driven by medium and personal energy individual mark in the national visual identity of The work of artist Umber Majeed of Lahore, as they reach out and claim their artistic license. Pakistan. FRESH! celebrates the youth of the makes a direct statement, both in its content Pakistani artist. and execution. The red lights which form the Another significant aspect of the show is the text in Urdu, ‘Vo keh rahi he ke uss ko kuch creation of the curiosity room, inspired by As one of the curators, I was very committed kehna he’ (She is saying, she has something the idea of a curiousity cabinet — the low to representing artists who were not only to say), is straightforward and bold. Umber ceilings of the mezzanine gallery grant a sense producing conceptually and technically resolved Majeed’s statement forms a direct connection of secrecy and house smaller works, which work, but also those who show promise and are to the voices of other female artists in the require introspection and investigation. In dedicated to their careers as working artists. show. Iffat Tehseen of Gujranwala in her mixed this room the viewer finds work which initially During the selection process we came across media artwork makes a large red target with appear as oddities: miniature portraits on hundreds of exciting submissions. To carefully layers of faces and texts. Malghalara Kaleem coins; eggs and medicine capsules; a vintage narrow that down to a little over sixty was a of Malakand Division has playfully assembled beauty box with a peephole; revealing stark mammoth task; each one was meticulously the ‘safe dress’, a sculptural construction of and literally clinical imagery inside; a bra made categorised and critically considered. condoms forming a dress for a young woman. of silicon feeder nipples. In complete contrast Narjis Mirza’s work is a silent black and white from the large-scale works in the main areas This is a group of diverse artists. While some video of travelers walking quietly with their of the gallery, this collection of strange yet are trained from significant Pakistani art baggage, crossing over and making a journey. delicately meditative work brings eccentricity institutions in urban centers, others come from to FRESH! smaller towns in the provinces. The show also A transition happens when we look at the includes Pakistani artists who have trained work of Lahore-based artist Zahid Mayo. His Each of the works on display adds significantly abroad. FRESH! includes artists who work in paintings, which are oil on canvas, symbolise to the collective strength of this one voice. traditional mediums and mixed media, as well mysticism and following. He plays with dark This catalogue is a reflection on the process of as new media, installation and performance. and light sensitively. Zahid’s concepts and curating FRESH! and recognition of the work FRESH! is diverse — the work speaks volumes skill have an old-world quality, his youth is not that makes the show what it is. I want to thank Raania Azam Khan Durrani is a co-curator about the thought process of the young immediately apparent in his work. A similar all the artists for their constant engagement of FRESH! 6 7 Hoping Against Hope “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. changes within the space artists occupied as art world has become a big bad industry with FRESH! creates a welcome precedent for A dream you dream together is reality.” well as fulfill their intellectual responsibility each lobby promoting its own ideology and engaging artists in an unbiased manner.