While visiting the studio of A Q Arif I was a bit surprised to see a well managed studio with brushes, paints and canvases well-kept in their places. It feels good talking to him in cosy environment that increases my interest in his work. As he paints on a canvas I realises that an artists studio shows how managed person he is. And one can see this in his artworks also.
Starting his career in 1996 after completing a diploma from Karachi School of Art (KSA) A Q Arif became famous for his artworks in a short time span. One of his solo exhibitions in 2003 held at a local gallery in Karachi was sold out the very first day of the show.
In a Masters Show held in India in a recent past A Q Arif was one of the most junior artist among the masters such as Saeed Akhtar and Mashkoor Raza at the show. His representation there reflects his talent. He is one of a few artist of his batch who gains such fame so early.
When I inquire about a landscape at his home he told that it is one of his early accidental paintings. He got inspired by Ather Jamal's powerful drawing and did on location paintings in the early days of his career. Afterwards he began architecture painting and got much name and fame in that. Now his work has got a signature style and one can recognise his work from a distance. This style is a result of his experimentation in form and texture through repetition of same subject matter in various colour schemes creating a sense of perspective, exposing his paint application, composition and basic drawing.
His sincerity to his work and hard labour bring him this state. He is the only artist whose work in being copied by younger up coming artists so soon. Going through his recent solo exhibition at Artscene Gallery, Karachi I notice that however his work is fabulous some of his paintings do not show standard work. When I asked him he replied it happens sometimes the artist could not give his whole attention to his work. But then I realise that
whenever an artist has a solo exhibition some of the paintings show the same aspect. I think it is a common phenomenon among the artists that can be ignored.
Over all the exhibition was great and the viewers got a chance to witness a fantasy world of historical buildings of our country. His recent work is in oil on canvas whereas he has started his career by doing water colour paintings. His present work is aimed at depicting peace and tranquillity it seems therefore he uses calligraphy in the foreground of some paintings. He also added a touch of fantasy to some of his paintings by using images of elephants, bright full moon, clouds, mist and autumn leaves blowing with wind around the old buildings.
"My choice of structures usually limit to famous buildings from the Mughal Empire, shrines of famous Aulia or even newer structures that show inspiration from the Mughal time period", he elaborate.
A well rehearsed set of forms can easily be seen in his paintings, which appears repeatedly in his works. Without a trace of life (human or animal or vegetation) the same designs are composed vertically or horizontally in bright harmonious colours.
His motifs and architectural forms filled with hues of blue, brown, red and yellow. Strategically the images of heritage sites in few paintings are done in a single colour - blue to enhance the luminosity of surface.
Forms are composed symmetrically on the surface and a monotonous line outlines the shapes. Colour serves as a basic element and enhance the texture of symbolic patterns.
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