“To look at one of Ali Kazim’s paintings is not only to look at something wonderful, something remarkable. It is also to look at something deeply intriguing. Kazim is a fine and highly skilled and accomplished painter, but he is also a deeply compelling and accomplished teller of mysterious and wondrous stories..” (Eddie Chambers in Secret Lives)
Newsline has this fascinating account of the artist Ali Kazim:
“Ali Kazim is our very own success story. A home-grown boy from Pattoki, a small village in Punjab, Ali worked for a while as a billboard painter and a medical dispenser before he joined the National College of Arts (NCA) in 1998. He won a merit scholarship that allowed him to quit his job as a dispenser, and concentrate on his studies. He graduated with distinction in 2002, and a year later, he was invited to represent Pakistan at the George Keyt Foundation International Artists’ Camp in Sri Lanka, where his work was exhibited at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery.
In 2005, he won yet another scholarship: a Royal Overseas League Arts residency that sent him to France for a year (the only Pakistani artist so far to have won this residency). On October 23, 2007, the V. M. Art Gallery, in collaboration with Green Cardamom (London), opened its doors for his fourth solo exhibition, with an average price tag of Rs.500,000 per painting…..
Ali’s work has that intangible quality that has already made him one of Pakistan’s most sought-after contemporary artists, both here and around the world…..”
The New York Art World says:
The mix of unreal elements and an exaggerated reality underscores the spiritual quality of his work, the depth of the colors pulls the viewer into a world of multiple dimensions where the subtle voice is heard above everything else…. to return to one’s point of origin, quietly nudging the viewer back to an uncannily familiar place.
The images and references are courtesy this website.
