"It takes time, it takes silence. Putting a dot with the other dot. It has a power. It has an energy to it." - Wardha Shabbir.

Shabbir’s works stem from her interest in the countless contradictions that inform human behaviour, especially the path or Siraat which has come to inform her recent work. Religious texts and their interpretations incline towards a fatalistic view regarding human life; however there exists at the same time the concept of choice – choosing right over wrong, eternal bliss over worldly and temporary comfort, self-sacrifice over self-centeredness. These leaf-lined utopian pathways are a means of navigating oneself through the clutter of these possibilities and a course of clarity in the midst of contradictory values and states of being.

Each painting is made by a laborious rendering of countless dots coming together as units to form an idea. This is based on the ‘Nuqta’ or dot, symbolizing infinity. The dots join to form a line, which becomes a single, self-perpetuating medium of self-realization. Different configurations of welltrimmed hedges and other motifs represent the state of mind: the barriers that block our development, the path we follow through life, or the destination we aim for.

Taking forward the technique of traditional miniature painting, influenced by gardens from her surroundings and the ones depicted in historic manuscripts, the linear organic compositions in her work respond to her contemporary concern as an artist: to invoke a thought-provoking process of demystification.

The show opens with a private view on Thursday, 26 September from 6-8pm. The artist will be present. The exhibition continues from 27 September - 18 October. There will be an artist’s walkthrough on Saturday, 28 September at 3pm. We expect this to be an extremely popular exhibition. Please contact us to register your interest.

Wardha Shabbir (b. 1987) is a miniature painter who graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from the prestigious National College of Art, Lahore in 2011, winning the Principal’s Honour Award. Since then she has shown internationally and partaken in artists’ residences overseas. She was the first artist from Pakistan selected for FLAAC, Belgium, where she initiated a research based experiment transforming 2D miniature paintings into a 3D interactive environment. More recently, Shabbir was nominated for Jameel Prize 5 in 2018 and exhibited at the V&A Museum, London and Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai. She lives and works in Lahore.