LAHORE: ‘Resurgence’, the group exhibition of 41 brilliant, renowned, young and highly inspiring artists, which opened in connection with ongoing 14-day Mega Event ‘Lahore Biennale 01’, the mega event on the cultural horizon of the provincial metropolis, at the Ejaz Galleries, MM Alam Road, is a memorable journey, as well as a grand tribute to the cultural assets of this centuries old city, seen through the eyes of these highly skilled artists.
According to Mariam Hanif, the curator and the artist, the apparent idea behind the exhibition is to redefine the term “Landscape” and its evolution in 21st century art practice.Lahore is known as “City of Gardens”, due to huge variety of parks and gardens it has to offer in terms of beauty and aesthetics. In past, numerous mainstream artists from this particular location have explored this subject matter in their own approach and style.
Today, lot have been changed, not just in terms of visual structure of the city but how we perceive the concept of landscape in critical thinking. The exhibition looks forward in resurgence of subject matter and to lay symposium to something long forgotten in contemporary art practice. To make the exhibition, distinctive and challenging artists are required to work in non-traditional format of canvas/ papers, all artists have given a choice of two sizes in shape of Oval and Circle due to their symbolic history.
The selection of artist is based on their relationship to Lahore; most artists in the list are graduates of National Collage of Arts and a few from Punjab University of Art and Design as both the institutes hold a great art history together and bring forth the dichotomy in their ideologies.