ISLAMABAD:Najam Kazmi, an established miniature artist on Wednesday demonstrated traditional and contemporary skills of miniature art besides briefing about the history during a seminar here at Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA).
The seminar was a collaborative event of PNCA and Nomad Art Gallery while five contemporary artists including Areej Nasir, Iman Pirzada, Khurram Abbass and Tauqeer Hilbi also demonstrated their skills for amateur artists and students from various educational institutions of Federal capital.
The participants also created some drawings with help of a demonstration by Najam Kazmi. The seminar was part of ongoing week-long activities to celebrate the cultural diversity of Pakistan and create social harmony through soft expressions of art.
The activities included a group art exhibition, performance, workshops, storytelling and seminar by various artists on the subject `Diversity and Social Harmony” featuring traditional and contemporary arts.
Najam Kazmi is working as a miniature, contemporary and traditional artist since 1989 to date. He was conferred the Tamgha-e- Imtiaz by the Government of Pakistan and honored by the life time achievement award by the Rawalpindi Art Council. He has exhibited in many countries including Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Algeria, Sri Lanka, India and the Gulf.
Mughal style of miniature painting was responsible for the amalgamation of indigenous themes and styles along with Persian and later European themes and styles. The arts of this period reflect a synthesis of foreign influences and indigenous flavour, said Nageen Hyat, Director Nomad, while talking to reporter.
Pakistani art has a long tradition and history and Pakistani artists are very talented. It consists of a variety of art forms, including painting, sculpture, miniature, calligraphy, pottery and textile arts etc. The arts are a vehicle through which human beings cultivate distinct social, cultural and individual identities, while transmitting values, impressions, judgments, ideas, visions, spiritual meanings, patterns of life and experiences across time and space, she added.
Khurram Abbas demonstrated his work that was based on social injustice and his war trauma. As the memories never fade he
expresses them in his painting, the visuals of which help him to alleviate their impact. His work is meant to
be an expression of protest in silence.
For Areej Nasir, art comes as a form of expression, she like to express the feelings and experiences that she got
by living in the Asian social order. ” I am partial to making the viewer think by commenting on what I feel
are the errors and realities of society. My work is more about unnoticeable issues in a society’s eye that
later causes bigger issues and stops society from growing. I think now is the time to move forward and
leave such errors behind to regulate the modern world order. I would describe my work as a modern
drama with trenchant wit assimilated into a century-old technique of painting. Every other painting is a
different commentary on my surroundings,” she said about the work.
Emaan Pirzada’s art practice revolves around an
affective bond between people and a place or setting. Her work is the product of diverse experiences that
She lived through over the course of her conscious recollection. Moving from place to place and being
displaced frequently leaves one unsettled mentally and physically as each time I had to begin with a
new modus operandi which created an urge in her to preserve those places. Her practice focuses on
documenting these places, not particularly how they were, but her understanding of those tangible
surroundings.
Toqeer Hilbi works on the visual documentation of entities being led
towards extinction belonging to his native land “Baltistan”. After the documentation of folklore and balti
script, he documents Fauna of the region and again the script which is to be preserved primarily.