The boundary wall of Press Club was covered with larger-than-life portraits of iconic women of Pakistan (2016). This gesture of acknowledgement commissioned by the I Am Karachi campaign was painted by truck artists from the urban art collective, Phool Pati.…
The controversy that began with Documenta 15 has become much worse during the planning of Documenta 16 and now threatens the very life of this Kassel based, prestigious art forum. I remember my first Documenta, it was truly impressive with…
The news of Tariq Javed’s passing away was sudden and took many of us back to memories of him as a painter and ceramist, and above all as a magnanimous spirit who brought people together and helped the nascent careers…
Steadily Public Art is attracting artists and communities that understand the importance of inclusivity and the need for larger dialogues through art. Getting traction on all continents it has proven itself to be a space-making practice that unites, amplifies and…
We deserve a better death. Our bodies are disfigured and twisted, embroidered with bullets and shrapnel. - Musab Abo Toha, from his collection ‘Save Gaza’. Like a puzzle, each verse of this poem fits together to tell the brutal history…
Allah Baksh occupied the same historical moment of change as the renowned Chughtai, but carved out a different trajectory. A re-reading of his practice unveils a dynamic interface with diverse creative conversations of early twentieth century. The Ustad was born…
Shahzia Sikander’s recent installation of sculptures titled Hawah …to breathe, air, life, stands in Madison Square Park (Witness) and the Supreme Court (NOW) in New York— with this comes the honor of being the first artist of Pakistani origin to…
Many questions about Karachi were left unanswered as I grew up between erasure and nostalgia in this city. The colonial built heritage with its linear history echoed the imperialist narrative which for decades became the only truth we knew. It…
As a keen observer of art history and the ruptures created by colonization, I have found artisanal practices as an important part of the cultural continuum that exists independent of Eurocentric art history. The assimilation of influences embedded in crafts…
It’s the spatial conundrums in pioneer modernist Shakir Ali’s canvases that have always intrigued me. The decluttering of objects helps you focus on the infinite void and the tension between space and levitating objects, subverting all notions of gravity to…