A collage of brain-teasing abstractions

The city’s Full Circle art gallery was host to a collage of brain-teasing abstractions on Friday evening.

Titled ‘Figuratively speaking’, the exhibition explores subjects like gauging body language, the tussle between the conscious and the subconscious, with the vast reach of the latter. Five young artists are featured in the exhibition.

They are Ammama Malik, Ayesha Naveed, Anas Abro, Faten Suleman, and Hassan Shah Gillani. The first portrait of the show is by Ayesha Naveed. Titled ‘Body Language V’, it shows a male figure attired in immaculate shoes and trousers but stops short of the face and the upper body. As Ayesha explains, there was a sofa at their place where their father always sat. So, she said, when painting the sofa, she decided to dispense with the upper part of the body to gauge the body language of anybody who sat on the sofa -- a very abstract concept to assimilate but Ayesha has to get the credit for the meticulous painting, the colours, and the immaculate strokes of the brush.

Says Ayesha, “My work derives from sofas in isolation, using it as a means to portray my father whom I idolized. The faceless figures in my paintings strip them from a specific identity, allowing my viewer to associate his own connotations with the symbolic postures.”

Ayesha is a product of the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, and belongs to the Class of 2015. Another promising young artist is Anas Abro whose works adorn the walls of the gallery. His untitled work is a 48”X36” oil-on-canvas. It shows a male figure with just a loin cloth, a muscular figure with well-developed muscles. As Abro puts it, the portrait is supposed to depict the constant tussle between the conscious and the subconscious.

Says Abro, “My work always revolves around human nature. I express the feelings of the conscious mind. Our subconscious/soul has an ample expanse of knowledge, but the conscious is bound. I am deeply impressed by the human figure, its beauty, the solidity of the muscles and the bones and that is what my work portrays.”

In line with his statement, the human figure portrayed by him displays solid muscle and a really sinewy body. Abro is a product of the Centre of Excellence in Art and Design from Jamshoro from the Class of 2015.