"Painting Over the Lines: Work by Five Contemporary Artists from Pakistan"
2002-07-15 until 2002-09-15
York Quay Centre
Toronto, ON, CA Canada

An exhibition of painting, drawing and mixed media integrates Pakistan's complex historical and popular culture with the preoccupations of mainstream western art and culture. Participating artists are Sylvat Aziz, Rashid Rana, Ali Raza, Risham Syed and Hamra Abbas. This exhibition is from the Indo Center of Art & Culture in New York and presented by SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Collective). Organized by Karin Miller-Lewis and Mahnaz Fancy

Rashid Rana, one of the artists in York Quay Gallery's Painting Over the Lines exhibition, makes a special presentation on his process of creating art. Rana hires skilled billboard painters to realize some of his large works referencing pop-art. The artist talks about how this method (employed by Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons) is one that many artists shy away from. Through a slide presentation, Rana reveals his process and places it in the context of contemporary art in Pakistan and the West.

"Everything is double edged in Rashid Rana's paintings. In works like What is So Pakistani about this Painting?, he underlines the difficulty of locating and defining a culture after colonialism and in this age of globalization. Yet he does not dismiss the integrity of the Pakistani culture with a one note joke; establishing a new kind of cultural wholeness born of a critically engaged art." (Karin Miller-Lewis, IndoCenter of Art & Culture).

Born in Pakistan, Rana has exhibited his work in the United States and Asia. In 2000, his work was included in the groundbreaking travelling exhibition Another Vision: 50 years of art from Pakistan, first presented at the Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, London.

Also featured are works by Hamra Abbas, Sylvat Aziz, Ali Raza and Risham Syed, contemporary artists from Pakistan who offer new and critical ways to understand the complex cultural landscape of a nation in transition.

Painting Over the Lines has been organized by Karin Miller-Lewis and Mahnaz Fancy of the IndoCenter of Art & Culture, New York and is presented in Toronto by SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Collective).

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