Miniature artist Wasim Ahmed has been entertaining Karachi audiences with his tongue in cheek humour for the last five years. When he painted saucy miniatures of Hindu deity Krishna juxtaposed with western teen queens, pin up models and film divas like Marilyn Monroe, Madonna and the like, he brought a new twist to the synthesis of tradition and modernity so common to our art milieu. The flimsy see through, diaphanous veil as burqa, chador or element of concealment was another element that he used to advantage in his own specific style, to address socio cultural and gender issues. Well executed, decorative and engaging, his work managed to impact viewer sensibility and establish his identity. Today Wasim Ahmed is among the mere handful of miniature artists who have consistently maintained the quality of their working skills and thematic ranges and this has stabilized his popularity ratings.

A participant of the 6th Vasl Residency program Wasim exhibited his new work with other fellow members at VM Gallery recently. In a residency an artist is freed from the daily cares that a domestic and professional life demands and he is also able to create work without the pressure of a commercial showing in a gallery. This allows him the freedom to explore and experiment. In the VM show, installation art by Wasim brought forth a side of him that audiences were not familiar with. His work was a study in contrasts. From small miniatures to large installations he had played around with the scale and dimensions of his expression with considerable ease.

The artist reveals that his ideas often change and reshape themselves while he is planning the implementation of his concepts. His compositions develop as they progress - he freely inter-mixes his varied interests where and when necessary, but eventually these linkages are all connected to his basic thematic structures. The huge metal sheet installation on display in the residency show, is the out come of his earlier working experience with sculpture which was put on hold when he joined NCA and became seriously involved with miniature. When he eyed the cylindrical cone shaped, gleaming silver metal sheet, lying in a corner of the VM studio where he was working, it reminded him of a woman in a burqa. Even more exciting was the distorted reflection of a female nude drawing lying at the base of the rolled sheet. This misshapen image prompted Wasim to play with the concept of distortion on other levels also. After much deliberation he painted an intentionally twisted image of a female figure which, surprisingly, when placed at the bottom of the cone reflected a very proportionate image of the figure on the sheet surface. The metal sheet cone installation thus became a brain teaser alluding to the distorted world view of the burqa as an abnormal covering on the one hand, and the somewhat limited and skewered impression of the outside world seen from within the confines of the voluminous shroud. The proportionately correct painted image served as a reminder of how easily truth can be warped, twisted and misrepresented.

Yet another installation consisted of an empty coffin shaped box. A huge plastic rose was hung over it alluding to the departed soul of a loved one. A galaxy of shimmering, shining stars suspended above the rose, evoking a heavenly abode, completed the picture.

While installation was a break from the miniature work that is Wasim's forte there were new developments within his paintings also.

Calligraphy as a painterly idiom appeared for the first time in Wasim's miniatures in this show. His deft writing pointed to a trained hand. He disclosed that he was learning the art of writing from Ustad Gohar Qalam and intended to further refine his khatati. Using calligraphy within the small format of his miniatures Wasim has attempted to mix it within his compositions of female figures, the burqa shroud and veil. These attempts are as yet experimental and the synthesis is not fully resolved. Most of the paintings in the VM exhibition were beginnings that were as yet to mature… perhaps in his subsequent works he will be able to achieve a stronger integration. This is one of the positive aspects of residency art - the artist is free to start a series or conclude it or look for new metaphors or opt for something altogether different.

Wasim Ahmed is a young artist who graduated from the NCA with honours in the year 2000. His first two person show of miniatures called "Exotic Bodies," an eastern representation of the west, was held at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston England. A string of group participations in Delhi, Bombay, Oman, Greece, UK and France followed soon after. At home in Karachi and Lahore he has had four solo exhibitions, two twin shows and has been part of almost every significant miniature group show.

Other than painting he also teaches this art form, has delivered lectures at various institutions, and after teaching at Hunerkada is now a lecturer at NCA. His objective in life is to render services in a demanding environment and to contribute in a creative arena. As a Vasl Residency member he did give free rein to his creativity; hopefully its effects will resonate in his successive exhibitions.

in their sculpture department. As a student his very first public display secured him the Sheraton Hotel Scholarship which greatly facilitated his study period. The following year his thesis work also generated positive responses but to get established professionally over here is even more difficult for a sculptor than a fine artist. There are no settled openings for this medium it is difficult to find large studio spaces as well as willing models. Generally sculptors work in fields allied to arts to make ends meet or to finance their sculpture shows. Asad shared a studio with a friend for a while and took on jobs related to the field of designing. Working as a set designer for various television stations and undertaking assignments as a freelance artist not only broadened his experience but afforded him opportunities to experiment and innovate in a variety of media. It was during this period that he became aware of the creative use of scrap metal and began moulding it to compose pieces like his popular 'waiter' and 'village woman' series of work.

The exhibition at Gul Mohar was the artists first solo and it succeeded in putting across the message that he can handle most of the sculpting media and is willing to undertake bold experiments. His mind is sensitive to current issues and he is keen to interpret them conceptually as well as literally. However in his excitement to address a variety of feelings and subjects he extends himself into too many directions and mediums. This confuses the viewer and also prevents him from concentrating and working in greater detail and harmony on specific pieces. Even more distracting than this was the display of a series of black and white charcoal drawings. As figurative studies this was an independent body of work in its own right but it lost impact when mixed with other three dimensional media. Having shown his range and potential Asad Hussain should now try to concentrate on a more integrated development of his ideas and try to give them a more 'finished' and complete appearance.