Written by: Sana Shahid
Posted on: July 19, 2023 | 
| 中文
An Ode to My Teenage Self by Misha Sheikh
For many artists, dreams are the source of inspiration. What goes on in their subconscious shapes their ideas that are then transferred onto paper. The resulting artworks have many layers to unravel, each giving life to a new meaning and a different understanding of what is being seen. Only A Dream is an exhibition of such work. Curated by Mahr Lak and displayed at Artescape Gallery in Islamabad, the show features 8 young artists from different parts of the country, each showcasing their own dreams, thoughts and perceptions about their surroundings in unique and captivating ways.
Muhammad Reza Khan delves deep into the sense of peace and tranquility he finds in the mountains of his hometown in Quetta. Khan says that he was always drawn to these places but had the chance to truly reconnect with them during the pandemic, when he was isolated from the outside world. In his miniature ink & gouache paintings, he has shown a lone tree standing against a vast sky in the background. The details in his work add an almost three-dimensional quality to the visuals, inviting the viewer to look closer and captivating them. Khan’s use of color is also praiseworthy, creating pieces that are overall visually pleasing to look at.
Shab Pur Az Sitaar-ha (The Night is Full of Stars) by Muhammad Reza Khan
Menal Bano focuses on depicting her connection to the place she was born in. With her abstract urban spaces, she wants to highlight the patriarchal nature of the world. Her oil paintings are a colorful blend of elements we see every day but perhaps don’t always notice. There is a familiarity in her images and yet the overall pieces seem to be unique at the same time, encouraging one to notice something different each time.
Dreamscape by Menal Bano
Some of the most thought-provoking imagery comes from Hina Tabassum’s mind. Her work questions and explores how certain factors or events affect a person’s psychological health. Tabassum especially focuses on the damaging impact of violence on young children. Her bold artworks using metal as the canvas and rust as her paintbrush, have a unique quality. Her use of light adds much-needed depth to the scenes she has created. Her pieces may look cute at first, showing a teddy bear in various situations, but the idea darkens when one understands why the artist chose rust as her medium. Tabassum explains that the rusting metal acts as a metaphor for the corrosion that children’s minds and lives experience as a result of violence.
A Day In My Life by Hina Tabassum
Hifza Khan’s work takes the viewer on a journey into nature and its many aspects. For Khan, the important part of nature is not its realism but rather its healing effect. As such, she creates beautifully intricate miniature artworks that look like a collage of multiple elements. Her mastery of miniature painting deserves special praise, with each detail applied meticulously, from the feathers of a bird to the veins in a leaf. This natural amalgamation of familiar forms is made even more appealing by her use of bright colors. Each artwork is bursting with color, enough to stop anyone in their tracks and inspire them to come closer for a look.
Symposium by Hifza Khan
The range of work at the show is quite impressive, giving art lovers a lot to take in. Misha Sheikh has worked on the elements of nature that we regularly witness in busy cities. Subjects like trees, fruits and birds are painted with a mastery of watercolors, breathing life into her work. Fatima Kaleem explores the depths of her mind, extracting and showcasing all the people she has met or thought of in her life. Her woodcut prints have a beautiful, graphical quality to them. There’s a uniformity in the figures as well as a differentiating factor in each one. Shahid Hassan Boni’s miniature paintings depict the connection between his inner and outer selves. He combines architectural spaces and natural landscapes in his colorful artworks, often with a human figure that becomes a part of the frame.
Feast by Fatima Kaleem
Inshal Tahir creates the space between dreams and reality, looking into her personal desires and imagination. She does so by using the Banyan tree as the central element of her acrylic and oil paintings. Her final pieces are a surreal blend of color and organic forms, forcing the eye to jump from one point to another, trying to figure out where to start and where to end.
Violet Waters by Inshal Tahir
The worlds that exist within dreams and imaginations are fascinating, and Only A Dream is the perfect example of this. The show opened on July 7th to mark Artescape’s 1 year anniversary and is worth a visit for anyone who loves exploring what artists think and dream about.
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