Ali Azmat – Canvas Gallery

28 February 2019

Faces speak unspoken words – The News

KARACHI: Pakistani artist Ali Azmat has shed light on the meditative nature of the process of creating his hyper-realistic large scale charcoal portraits in a solo exhibition titled “Larger than Life” at Canvas Gallery, Karachi.

Through the women portraits he has discussed both mystic realities and socio-cultural norms the women face in their daily life.

Currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Punjab, Azmat graduated with a gold medal in Masters in Fine Arts from the same university.

He is the recipient of the ‘National Excellence Award’ by Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) in 2003. Moreover, in 2003 and 2012 he was given ‘Award of Excellence’ by the Artist’s Association of the Pakistan.

His untitled artworks in charcoal on Fabriano academia paper portray women only. His masterpieces reflect medium charcoal that has helped in creating texture and balance in composition and the theme. The shades of black and grey have facilitated in bringing out the sufferings at the hands of other human beings. The use of line and form intelligently to produce his desired images, Azmat wants viewers to interpret forms, lines and expressions in to dialogue. The body of work shows his observation and concept that help him in developing and creating current series.

Azmat has managed to express his feelings through this medium by producing images that reflect the expressions of the characters and serve as a means to narrate their stories of suffering, distress and mental torment.

Other than women the images of girls show hope, happiness and pleasure. He has recorded his interpretation of feelings and emotions through lines, marks, tone, texture and spaces.

A few portraits show calm expressions of women while most women seem to be in a thoughtful state. It looks like something is bothering them that they have been unable to express or share and as time passed by this emotional disturbance started to appear on their faces.

Azmat has drawn inspiration from direct observations of the society and therefore invited a mood of pure contemplation in a viewer. The paintings explored the journey of woman’s life based on the conditions and factors of the society.

Nadeem Zuberi

Source: Business Recorder

14 February 2019

The language of faces – Dawn

KARACHI: Ali Azmat is one of Pakistan’s leading artists. His work has always prompted a strong, commendatory response from art lovers.

An exhibition of his latest body of work titled Larger Than Life that can be seen at the Canvas Art Gallery is no different. The exhibits speak volumes for the artist’s tremendous eye for detail and his insightful study of human nature (which in this show works through the dictum ‘the face is the window to the soul’).

First, let’s take a look at what Azmat has to say about his oeuvre. “After 20 years it [passion for drawing] reoccupied my soul through a massive scale of drawings where smaller elements are pronounced with a different syntax to experience new explorations of hyperrealism, emphasising on detail of form and subjectivity.” It is interesting how an artist who expresses himself through a visual medium employs the word ‘syntax’ to explain his creative process. Syntax is the manner in which we arrange words to form a sentence. It is more to do with the spoken or written language. Clearly, Azmat considers painting and drawing as a creative endeavour where ‘arrangement’ of elements is the key to communicating his message across.

What elements, you might ask. Well, they are to do with all that goes into making a face, say the things that cannot be said with the help of words. His untitled pieces (charcoal on Fabriano academia paper) signify a world where the unsaid takes precedence over the uttered. The use of charcoal does the trick for him. The shades that it imparts on facial expressions of his characters elucidate what his protagonists are going through (a gamut of feelings) as well as enhance the importance of their existence. Now it is difficult to define hyperrealism. But Azmat’s work pushes realism to a point where the physicality of a character plays an ancillary role to his/her feelings. And it’s pretty convincing.

The exhibition concludes on Feb 21.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2019

Peerzada Salman

Source: Dawn

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