"Posternama" Solo show by Lahore-based artist Muhammad Zeeshan at Latitude 28, F 208 GF, Lado Sarai > 11am-7pm on 16th November 2013 to 5th January 2014
Time : 11:00 am - 7:00 pm
Entry : Free
Event Description : 'Posternama' Solo show by Lahore-based artist Muhammad Zeeshan.
He started out as a billboard painter, studied miniature art at National College of Arts, Lahore in 2000-2003, and considers visiting India in 2005 as a turning point in his career, and now Lahore-based artist Muhammad Zeeshan is all set to be back in his favourite country for a solo exhibition.
Says Bhavna Kakar, Director, Latitude 28: “When we showed Zeeshan’s work at India Art Fair 2013, his minimal work - inspired by Damien Hirst’s butterflies - which showed an impeccable sense of proportion and design while using the technique of laser scoring was applauded greatly. We have shared several years of relationship with him and his artist-actress wife Kaif Ghaznavi. His solo will surely be something to watch out for as well.”
The show exhibits twelve paintings that beautifully marry the intricacy of traditional miniatures with contemporary elements of pop art, using laser scoring and gouache on wasli paper. While the works appear to participate in a celebration of faith, particularly of Sufi traditions, Zeeshan is also interrogating a long tradition of rendering the intangibility of faith, myths and transcendental narratives as they are stilled, memorialized and even atrophied by the artistic act. His work is less an evocation of faith than it is an examination into the power and longevity of a particular class of imagery.
Zeeshan says: “I started work as a cinema board painter in Mirpurkhas. Most times, I would be given the job to censor the skin of the heroine shown in the billboards. Later, noticing local billboards and posters became a natural thing… Pop culture imagery was routine painting. Billboards of either a popular soft drink brand or paid portraits of political candidates during elections on walls were part and parcel of daily work. So it was quite ordinary for me to use them in my compositions.”
Zeeshan’s earliest influences, however, were magazine illustrations. “There was a diary in my house which I came across... it belonged to a local bank and had the imagery of Chugtai illustrating Mirza Ghalib. I was quite taken with the images and wanted to draw them. But the local magazines, newspaper illustrations which were within my reach were definitely my most favourite.”
As Zeeshan reveals, he was always interested in drawing. “It was an inherent thing…subconsciously noticing and observing my environment and drawing them once I reached home. I usually brought local digest/novels to bring home and copy their illustrations draw in them.”
“Initially working as a billboard painter was an opportunity to learn and earn at the same time. The fear of the brush, paint got erased once I started working with such big surfaces at an early stage. Also I feel the technique the painters used gave me the confidence and understanding of materiality in relation to the surface.”
Working as a billboard painter is a memory that has stayed with the 33-year-old artist who is today at the forefront of contemporary miniature painting and has held hugely successful shows across the globe.
Interestingly, Zeeshan admits that the greatest influence on him has been the “culture shock” that he experienced when he moved from a comparatively reserved society of Mirpurkhas (where he was born) to Lahore where he was exposed to the liberated and enriched environment of the National College of Arts. “Also when I traveled for the first time to London and first time out of my country in 2007, it was strange to be dictated by a digital pole at a traffic crossing to ‘WALK’. These things changed my outlook towards life and created a better understanding for the various cultures that exist. I was/am always hungry for more interactions. The sense of newness jolts me out of my comfort zone and I react to, absorb it and then naturally it becomes part of my work.”
It is this same hunger to absorb interesting bits from new cultures that got Zeeshan hooked to drums. “I started learning drumming and soon the passion to make drums took over. I made a lot of drum sets with local wood materials and gave them away to people who were looking for drum sets.”
With his very first solo show in Karachi in 2006 with the Canvas Gallery, Zeeshan turned heads with imagery that always had a socio-political dialogue going within it – the visuals consisted of vultures and the American Flag.
Posternama at Latitude 28 is his second art outing in India after six years and the central theme of the show which includes works titled Buraq, Shah Abdul Latif Bittai, Zuljana, Shahbaz Kare Parvaz, and Ghous Pak to name a few is to explore “my ongoing concerns regarding borrowed imagery versus originality”. “I am using poster images found locally within our culture. These imageries consist of mythical creatures and human. Within the Sufi culture lies a lot of fantastical stories. Using these stories, random local artists and believers have given their own faces to the Sufis and creatures, illustrating the time, events and landscape. I am using those posters to research and explore my own technique.”
Speaking of technique, while miniature paintings is something Zeeshan trained in, using laser scoring is what he chanced upon himself.
In the current show at Latitude 28, Zeeshan exhibits his expertise with laser scoring in every beautifully rendered meditative, almost spiritual work. “I believe I belong to the neo-contemporary school of thought of miniature and therefore feel that I can incorporate and fuse various other techniques because I like working with technology. I enjoy drawing immensely. Therefore I explore the various ways of ‘how to draw’ and especially ‘with’ what to draw. We live in a very fast paced world. Everything is connected and every one is ‘aware’, thanks to the internet. I spend most of my time in cyber space and there is so much one can learn just sitting there browsing. How I came across laser scoring is a story in itself….my wife was studying in San Francisco, I used to visit her in school. She was an assistant tutor in one of the design labs where she helped operate the laser cutter machine. The first time I saw students work on it and create models out of it, I started asking about it. One day the laser got faulty due the power supply failure and instead of cutting into the material it only engraved. I got thinking what if I feed the machine my painting and control the intensity so that it doesn’t cut and only scores? That is the first time I experimented with it and got hooked onto it. It is such a beautiful process, seeing your drawing being translated onto the surface of your choice. Every line is being dictated by you. There is so much control and power. It is a high.”
What is also close to his heart are two past solo shows - A Colligation – which is a compilation of painted flags (gouache on Wasli) ring bind, which is in the collection of the British Museum. The other is a show titled Dying Miniatures. “I studied miniature and I teach it as well. I am recognized as a miniaturist and therefore this project was about what the medium means to me and how it is understood in today’s world. It is an ongoing dialogue, which I had to take a break from because I came across the lovely laser cutter.”
And even though Zeeshan has exhibited across the globe including Asia, Europe and the USA, he maintains that “India has always been my favorite place of exhibit. I enjoy the culture and its warm welcome. I want to show and share what I create reaching out to as many people and cultures as I can.”
Related Events : Exhibitions
Entry : Free
Place : Latitude 28, F 208 GF, Lado Sarai, New Delhi - 110030
Event Description : 'Posternama' Solo show by Lahore-based artist Muhammad Zeeshan.
He started out as a billboard painter, studied miniature art at National College of Arts, Lahore in 2000-2003, and considers visiting India in 2005 as a turning point in his career, and now Lahore-based artist Muhammad Zeeshan is all set to be back in his favourite country for a solo exhibition.
Says Bhavna Kakar, Director, Latitude 28: “When we showed Zeeshan’s work at India Art Fair 2013, his minimal work - inspired by Damien Hirst’s butterflies - which showed an impeccable sense of proportion and design while using the technique of laser scoring was applauded greatly. We have shared several years of relationship with him and his artist-actress wife Kaif Ghaznavi. His solo will surely be something to watch out for as well.”
The show exhibits twelve paintings that beautifully marry the intricacy of traditional miniatures with contemporary elements of pop art, using laser scoring and gouache on wasli paper. While the works appear to participate in a celebration of faith, particularly of Sufi traditions, Zeeshan is also interrogating a long tradition of rendering the intangibility of faith, myths and transcendental narratives as they are stilled, memorialized and even atrophied by the artistic act. His work is less an evocation of faith than it is an examination into the power and longevity of a particular class of imagery.
Zeeshan says: “I started work as a cinema board painter in Mirpurkhas. Most times, I would be given the job to censor the skin of the heroine shown in the billboards. Later, noticing local billboards and posters became a natural thing… Pop culture imagery was routine painting. Billboards of either a popular soft drink brand or paid portraits of political candidates during elections on walls were part and parcel of daily work. So it was quite ordinary for me to use them in my compositions.”
Zeeshan’s earliest influences, however, were magazine illustrations. “There was a diary in my house which I came across... it belonged to a local bank and had the imagery of Chugtai illustrating Mirza Ghalib. I was quite taken with the images and wanted to draw them. But the local magazines, newspaper illustrations which were within my reach were definitely my most favourite.”
As Zeeshan reveals, he was always interested in drawing. “It was an inherent thing…subconsciously noticing and observing my environment and drawing them once I reached home. I usually brought local digest/novels to bring home and copy their illustrations draw in them.”
“Initially working as a billboard painter was an opportunity to learn and earn at the same time. The fear of the brush, paint got erased once I started working with such big surfaces at an early stage. Also I feel the technique the painters used gave me the confidence and understanding of materiality in relation to the surface.”
Working as a billboard painter is a memory that has stayed with the 33-year-old artist who is today at the forefront of contemporary miniature painting and has held hugely successful shows across the globe.
Interestingly, Zeeshan admits that the greatest influence on him has been the “culture shock” that he experienced when he moved from a comparatively reserved society of Mirpurkhas (where he was born) to Lahore where he was exposed to the liberated and enriched environment of the National College of Arts. “Also when I traveled for the first time to London and first time out of my country in 2007, it was strange to be dictated by a digital pole at a traffic crossing to ‘WALK’. These things changed my outlook towards life and created a better understanding for the various cultures that exist. I was/am always hungry for more interactions. The sense of newness jolts me out of my comfort zone and I react to, absorb it and then naturally it becomes part of my work.”
It is this same hunger to absorb interesting bits from new cultures that got Zeeshan hooked to drums. “I started learning drumming and soon the passion to make drums took over. I made a lot of drum sets with local wood materials and gave them away to people who were looking for drum sets.”
With his very first solo show in Karachi in 2006 with the Canvas Gallery, Zeeshan turned heads with imagery that always had a socio-political dialogue going within it – the visuals consisted of vultures and the American Flag.
Posternama at Latitude 28 is his second art outing in India after six years and the central theme of the show which includes works titled Buraq, Shah Abdul Latif Bittai, Zuljana, Shahbaz Kare Parvaz, and Ghous Pak to name a few is to explore “my ongoing concerns regarding borrowed imagery versus originality”. “I am using poster images found locally within our culture. These imageries consist of mythical creatures and human. Within the Sufi culture lies a lot of fantastical stories. Using these stories, random local artists and believers have given their own faces to the Sufis and creatures, illustrating the time, events and landscape. I am using those posters to research and explore my own technique.”
Speaking of technique, while miniature paintings is something Zeeshan trained in, using laser scoring is what he chanced upon himself.
In the current show at Latitude 28, Zeeshan exhibits his expertise with laser scoring in every beautifully rendered meditative, almost spiritual work. “I believe I belong to the neo-contemporary school of thought of miniature and therefore feel that I can incorporate and fuse various other techniques because I like working with technology. I enjoy drawing immensely. Therefore I explore the various ways of ‘how to draw’ and especially ‘with’ what to draw. We live in a very fast paced world. Everything is connected and every one is ‘aware’, thanks to the internet. I spend most of my time in cyber space and there is so much one can learn just sitting there browsing. How I came across laser scoring is a story in itself….my wife was studying in San Francisco, I used to visit her in school. She was an assistant tutor in one of the design labs where she helped operate the laser cutter machine. The first time I saw students work on it and create models out of it, I started asking about it. One day the laser got faulty due the power supply failure and instead of cutting into the material it only engraved. I got thinking what if I feed the machine my painting and control the intensity so that it doesn’t cut and only scores? That is the first time I experimented with it and got hooked onto it. It is such a beautiful process, seeing your drawing being translated onto the surface of your choice. Every line is being dictated by you. There is so much control and power. It is a high.”
What is also close to his heart are two past solo shows - A Colligation – which is a compilation of painted flags (gouache on Wasli) ring bind, which is in the collection of the British Museum. The other is a show titled Dying Miniatures. “I studied miniature and I teach it as well. I am recognized as a miniaturist and therefore this project was about what the medium means to me and how it is understood in today’s world. It is an ongoing dialogue, which I had to take a break from because I came across the lovely laser cutter.”
And even though Zeeshan has exhibited across the globe including Asia, Europe and the USA, he maintains that “India has always been my favorite place of exhibit. I enjoy the culture and its warm welcome. I want to show and share what I create reaching out to as many people and cultures as I can.”
Related Events : Exhibitions
"Posternama" Solo show by Lahore-based artist Muhammad Zeeshan at Latitude 28, F 208 GF, Lado Sarai > 11am-7pm on 16th November 2013 to 5th January 2014
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Sunday, January 05, 2014
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