Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

Welcome readers to the July 2019 issue. This month ArtNow has another issue with an exciting theme “Art in the age of the Internet”. In this issue, we have included the Profiles of Akram Dost Baloch, a senior renowned artist whose work revolves around the people of his native land and Bani Abidi, known for weaving narratives of South Asian politics and culture and Art Spaces features the Shakir Ali Museum.

Lahore Biennale Foundation is busy at work with the Afforestation Lahore Movement, an incentive of the ‘Clean and Green Pakistan’ drive launched last October. Executive Director LBF, Qudsia Rahim is alongside working with the Commissioner Lahore Dr. Mujtaba Piracha. The initiative aims at reviving its previous garden city reputation and therefore, bringing back natural beauty to the city.

Karachi Biennale Trust recently held the launch for their KB17 catalogue at the Amin Gulgee Gallery. The Catalogue is a landmark project that documents the city’s first ever Biennale. It covers the works of 180 local and international artists who exhibited at 12 different venues. Part of the Biennale’s mandate is to document current knowledge with a series of discursive Roundtables, interviews, and panel discussions that focus on the context of KB17 and critical discourses in the city. Alsoa highlighted is the theme of the biennale, ‘Witness’ and its strong relevance to the politics of representation and reclaiming of lost personal and political histories.

My heartiest congratulations to Muhammad Zeeshan for a successful exhibition, which addresses one of the crucial and current issues of the country and setting a benchmark in the contemporary art world. Zeeshan pushes boundaries in contemporary art with his recent exhibition “Serving with white gloves” in Berlin, Germany. He is trained in Miniature and recently displayed a plethora of artworks at Berlin in which, he focused on different aspects and facts, mainly raising a question of which land belongs to whom. In his artworks he depicts the importance of the lands and buildings, which were constructed without authority planning and therefore, referred to as illegal settlements.

Art Now welcomes Isabel Margarita Lewis to Pakistan and congratulates the Karachi Biennale Trust for achieving another milestone. KBT, in collaboration with NAPA and the Goethe Institut, had invited a Berlin-based contemporary performance artist Isabel Lewis to hold a two-day workshop, which allowed performance artists to experience and explore dance through a unique combination of situational choreography, fiction-writing and collapsing elements of the theatre. ArtNow has interviewed Lewis regarding this two-day workshop, her contemporary style of dance and a lot more, which will be a part of our upcoming issue.
Koel began the season with an exhibition, ‘Space Bar’ that showcased the artworks of recent graduates of the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. It was exciting to observe new artists displaying work in various mediums, using different and modern techniques. Congratulations and best of luck to all the new graduates.

The Summer Show was a one-of-a-kind art exhibition held at Canvas Gallery. The exhibition comprised of works from the personal collection of Shakir Ali and displayed some of the artworks of the most eminent artists of Pakistan today. It is interesting to observe the evolution and development in the art world in terms of planning, innovation and inspiration.

I would like to convey my deepest condolences on the passing of veteran journalist, Anil Datta. His area of interest was arts and culture and wrote exclusively on exhibitions held at the Foundation of Museum of Modern Art over the years. He will be missed.

Bye for NOW!