Daily Times

LAHORE: A showcase of artworks of senior and junior artists highlighting traditional and contemporary themes kicked off at the Coopera Art Gallery on Wednesday.

Around 30 artists and junior painters were showcased in the exhibition. While talking to Daily Times, Coopera Art gallery Director and Curator Muhammad Javed said that the purpose of the exhibition was to celebrate all the art activities held during 2015.

Answering a query, Javed said that the reason for delay in the exhibition was because of the ongoing construction work on the Mall Road that led to routine traffic jams. He said that he had made a painting on Lahore’s newly built underpass where the traffic jams could be witnessed. This was the dilemma of today’s Lahore and artists owe the society a responsibility to express the wrongdoings and problems faced by the people, he added. He said that one must bring forth the real and actual issues of the society because painting is not just drawing landscapes.

Punjab Auqaf and Religious Affairs Minister Ata Muhammad Maneka inaugurated the exhibition and expressed that such events always help promote art, literature and culture. Erum Ashfaq, who had recently displayed her artworks at the Pakistan Embassy in Germany, said more than 12 European ambassadors’ participated, adding that her focus in the paintings was on the buildings that displayed the country’s cultural heritage.

She had earlier said that she was striving to shed the false image of Pakistani women set by the western countries. Erum said that in her recent trip to Germany, she expressed through her paintings that Pakistani women were not tortured or living their lives behind the veils in a ‘backward society’ but enjoying full liberty
and perform their duties alongside men.

Artists’ whose paintings were on display included Khalid Mahmud, Saeed Akhtar, Muhammad Javed, Ajaz Anwar, Shahida Manzoor, Ghulam Mustafa, Naila Aamir, Nazir Ahmad, Mahboob Ali, Abu Bakar Rana, Sumera Jawad, Abid Hussain Qureshi, Irfan Ullah Babar, Munawar Mohiuddin, Amjad Naeem and Anila Ghulam Hussain, Mahmod Aalam, Maryam Saif, Dilawar Ali, Bushra Gul, Nadia Abbas, Farida Fatima, Masood Hayat, Muhammad Shafiq, Iram Shah, Shahid Iqbal, Erum Ashfaq, Gulzar and Nasir Nirwan.

Ceramist Salahuddin Michu said that the Coopera Art Gallery was the only gallery left in the city that promoted junior artists and displayed their work alongside the senior artists, which would provide an opportunity to art lovers and students to see the artworks under one umbrella.

The exhibition would continue until January 9, 2016.