Fabulous Works of Unver Shafi: 1st solo show after 12-year hiatus

KARACHI: Well known for his fabulist style, Karachi-based artist Unver Shafi Khan is in the limelight for his first solo show in over a decade.

The shape shifting quality found in fables and myths remains a lasting inspiration for his painterly works and is, thus, largely evident in the collection of acrylic miniature currently on display at Koel gallery.

Perhaps rooted in his passion for poetry and literature, Shafi continues to narrate his tales intentionally inflating fantastical elements. With incredibly surreal and dream like compositions characterized by blobs of colors varying from monochromes to vibrantly intense, this fabulist series on display is far from ordinary and unlike any seen around.

Developing a personal vocabulary through his untiring engagement with color and form, much of his career has been consumed by this fabulist approach, reveals Shafi discussing his long lasting focus which continues till today.

Fixated on his inspiration that comes from traditional fables his current works are, however, comparatively larger in terms of size and scale, elaborates the artist talking about the eighteen acrylic paintings on display.

The delicate and thoughtful network of dots used to embellish the blob like forms representative or suggestive of human shapes, has been a relentless feature, he adds talking about the vocabulary specific to his abstract works over the years.

Born and raised in Karachi, Unver Shafi graduated in 1984 from Kenyon College, US with a BA in English Literature. With a career spanning nearly 25 years, his last solo exhibit was held in 2004. 

Based on a selection of his works created between June 2015 and December 2016, the exhibition will remain open at Koel Gallery till February 2.