A Secret — Modern twist to ancient art form

KARACHI: Trained at the National College of Arts, Lahore, Sana Kazi is among the talented young lot to emanate from the premier art institute of Pakistan who are recognised as devotees of contemporary or neo-miniature style of painting. On a mission to keep up the old art form with changing times, Kazi’s contemporary spin on the centuries-old art form is based on experimentation with unorthodox materials. To retain the inner essence while updating the traditional techniques, Kazi known to use sawdust, cement and brick powder in the past, puts a modern twist by adding wood ashes to her miniature work on Wasli this time.

On display at Sanat, her current imagery rising up from the ashes of wood with paint made out of dry pigments minerals and stones challenges the conventional boundaries of miniature in terms of material and its large scale size explains the Lahore-based artist with a BFA degree in Miniature painting and MA honours in Visual Arts. Also a recipient of numerous awards, Qazi delving deeper into her thought and creative process reveals material such as wood ash has never been used on the wasli before.

With multiple layers, erased, re-structured, re-constructed and re-invented to create the image, Qazi reluctant to assert her conclusion or definitive meaning to the series titles her current body of work ‘Ek Raaz’. Tucked away safely like a secret that is valuable and precious, Qazi wishes the interpretation to be an open-ended process. The artist, refusing to define as to what it really is, wants the viewers to determine and discover the true meaning hidden in the works as they choose to see it.

Featuring 11 artworks of contemporary miniature, it is Sana Qazi’s third solo show since 2014 who lives and works out of Lahore. Titled "Ek Raaz (A Secret)"  the exhibition is to continue till May 4th at Sanat Gallery.