‘Hues of Dusk’ shows night life of Karachi, Lahore in winters

karachi: Lahore-based artist Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi took everyone on a stroll on Thursday through the lively wintery night life of Lahore and Karachi through his art exhibition titled ‘Hues of Dusk’ at the ArtCiti gallery in Karachi’s DHA neighbourhood.

“I have painted landscape, cityscape and the life of the small streets of Lahore,” Zulfi told The News. “The current exhibition is totally for city life.” The artist’s focus was the night life of Karachi and Lahore during winters. He has also shown the street food culture of both the cities during the night.

He explained how he has included the element of fog to depict winters, especially in Lahore. With fog in painting, he said, the element of distance gets palpable, which creates a perspective in the painting.

“It gets very cold in Lahore during the nights,” he said, adding that he has particularly focused on the city’s notorious red light area, which, according to him, never sleeps. “The people of the red light area lead a meaningful life and entertain everyone.”

Through his paintings he wants to tell the world that the notoriety attached with the red light area is not true. “People have rejected their lifestyle. There’s a section of society who look at them badly.”

On the contrary, he pointed out, those people have their own lifestyle and they are very humble. “I want to tell the world it’s not a bad place at all,” he stressed. The red light area entails music, food and entertainment, which, he remarked, is very much the part and parcel of Lahore’s culture.

He also has five paintings related to Lahore’s Rang Mahal, and three paintings each related to Gawal Mandi and Lakshmi Chowk. When asked which painting was his favourite, he showed a painting of Heera Mandi.

In the painting he has drawn a shop selling Lahore’s famous cuisine: Phajjay Kay Paye. Zulfi loves the Paye and visits the shop at least once a month. The painting has a motorbike and a rickshaw, and red and green colours. “It has everything that reflects Lahore’s culture: its food and its dress.”

The artist has a few paintings from Karachi as well. They include works depicting the city’s famous food street, Burns Road, as well as the Lines Area. Zulfi has won the Presidential Pride of Performance Award in art & culture. The subject of his latest collection of paintings is Lahore’s Walled City, landscapes, portraits and murals. He used oil, water colours and pastels as his mediums. A total of 38 paintings are on display at the exhibition that will run until October 17.

ArtCiti is the very first online art gallery in Pakistan. Set up in January 2014, it has become one of the most well-known art galleries in the country. ArtCiti has held over 55 exhibitions of various well-known as well as upcoming Pakistani artists.