Young artists display work at Alhamra

LAHORE: An Exhibition of artworks of young artists opened at Alhamra here on Wednesday.

An award distribution ceremony was also held before the exhibition. The exhibition will remain open till April 26 and all the artworks will be on sale for the public.

Lahore Arts Council took this initiative fifteen years ago to provide a platform to young artists to display their artworks from any region of the country of any medium and with unique concepts under one roof. Through this exhibition, Lahore Arts Council (Alhamra) provides a platform to young artists for displaying their artworks and they gain recognition in the field of visual arts through receiving Young Artists’ Award which is considered one of the most prestigious awards given to young artists by any government on non-government organisation for exhibiting their best artworks.

This was a great opportunity for young artists, therefore, the upper age limit was reduced to 32 years instead of 35 years this year for submitting artworks in this exhibition. Alhamra Art Gallery has received approximately 600 artworks created by 362 artists from Jamshoro, Bhakar, Hyderabad, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Islamabad, Kasur, Gujrat, Swabi, Bahawalpur, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Dera Ismail Khan, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Chiniot and many other parts from the country. Artworks in mediums like painting, sculpture, installation, video, ceramic, miniature painting, drawings, printmaking and video were on displayed. The exhibition was very well curated by Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi (Director, Arts & Culture) and Minaa Haroon (Assistant Director). Mian Ijaz ul Hassan, Chairman of Artists Association of Punjab was the chief guest of award distribution ceremony and inaugurated the exhibition. Jury members for judging the competition were Ghulam Mustafa (General Secretary, Artists’ Association of Punjab), Quddus Mirza (Professor and Head of Fine Arts Department, National College of Arts), Rahat Naveed Masood (Ex-Principal College of Arts and Design) and RM Naeem (Assistant Professor, National College of Arts). Top ten best artists received cash prizes of ten thousand each along with certificates and shields for submitting remarkable artworks for the exhibition. Ariba Hamid, Haya Zahra, Maryam Farooq, Sana Waqar, Sana Khalil, Sanie Bokhari, Sidra Liaqat, Tehreem Sarfraz, Yaseen Khan and Zoha Zafar Malik for submitting remarkable artworks and Laraib Rizvi and Rizwan-un-Nabi were given consolation prizes.

Audience is thrilled to see the diversity of artworks that are on display and the amount of effort visual artists are doing in the field of visual arts.Every artwork is exclusively phenomenal from one another. This exhibition is creating a dialogue about youth conceptual understanding of the world and highlighting their creative energies and minds to speak about their perspectives individually and collectively.