Promoting art, culture of reading

Islamabad : If you are an art lover and your ideal time is to have a cup of hot coffee while surrounded by books, paintings, and greenery with beautiful music in the background, the Artescape Gallery in Kohsar Market is definitely your place.

The work of young artists displayed at the gallery, in its main and interim exhibitions, is a breath of fresh air for those visiting the market. “Having an art gallery along with the book shop is something which was very much needed here. For anyone in the world, it will be a luxury to have a bookshop and an art gallery all under one roof and in one space,” said Riffy Mani, owner of the Table Talk restaurant and the Artescape Gallery. “The only thought behind this initiative is that we need to promote art and a culture of reading. The best part is that people love it here.”

The ongoing exhibition “Conclaves” at the gallery is inspired by the word conclaves which translates to a place, a universal temple where all entities of the universe meet to discuss things that are really intimate to them. The exhibition displays 20 art pieces by seven artists including Jibran Shahid, Syed Faraz Ali, Ammama Malik, Ayesha Shariff, Fizza Saleem, Ayesha Rumi, and Qasim Ali.

“So you can see different mediums used in the work displayed at the exhibition, where every artist has analyzed their world in their own way. Some have done that in abstract and some artists have painted actual concrete figures for example Faraz has worked on these black and white figures lost in this hazy and dusty world. That provokes the emotions that are left with the viewers to analyse the artwork in their own way,” said Mahr Lak, curator of the Artescape Gallery.

Introducing the art pieces, Mahr said that some artists have used really strong colours, motives, and patterns to translate the language in which they think to themselves. And some, in particular, Amama Malik, covers her characters in fabrics that hide everything, at the same time you can still see the emotion coming out of the fabric.

“In a way, it is inspired by the Renaissance. In fact, all the artworks displayed in this exhibition are inspired by different eras in the art world. There is a renaissance, there is Cubism, and there is also strong abstract for example the work of Ayesha Rumi. She worked with different motives. There is English, Arabic, and there are also pictures immersed and lost in these colourful frames,” he said terming her work interesting for how she painted the frames making the whole painting become one. “The further you go towards the painting, the further details come out of it.”