New Works by Ali Kazim
  In partnership with VM Gallery, Karachi, 23rd October 2007 to 7th November 2007

  A solo exhibition of Ali Kazim’s work opens at the VM Art Gallery in Karachi on Tuesday October 23. This is the artist’s first exhibition in Pakistan in two years.

Lahore-based art critic Aasim Akhtar has described Kazim’s paintings as “works of pure simplicity and maddening complexity”. Eddie Chambers a curator and writer based in the UK, writing about the male figures Kazim paints says “There is great beauty in the artist’s depiction of ultimately unscrutable males doing unscrutable things. Even the most seemingly simple of gestures or acts confounds us with its ambiguity. This act of denying us access to secrets is what makes these such powerful and engaging paintings.”

Kazim is best known for his singular approach to paintings. His works are multilayered constructions using watercolour pigments. His unusual technique produces a layered, textured effect not often identified with this media. Beginning his career as a cinema hoardings painter in small towns in Punjab, Kazim is an artist of exquisite technical ability. His subjects are often men, their features rendered to emphasize their Dravidian heritage. In his newest body of work, Kazim experiments with goatskins and leather to create distinctive new objects.

Born in the small Punjabi town of Pattoki in 1979, and now based in Lahore, Ali Kazim’s work has received unprecedented interest from collectors both within Pakistan and internationally. The past two years has seen much of his work acquired by international collections including leading institutions such as London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.