“A Matter of Time” by @studio_asif_ahmed @sanat_initiative
Asif Ahmed graduated with a distinction in Miniature Painting from National College of Arts, Lahore, in 2004 and was awarded the esteemed “Ustad Haji Sharif Award” for the best miniature artist from the batch of 2004. He has a number of solo and group shows to his credit including shows in France, Oman, Morocco, India, UK, Japan, Dubai, Singapore, Switzerland, Beirut and U.S.A. His work has been auctioned at the Sotheby’s and Saffron Art.
Asif’s artistic approach has always been centered around studying the visual history of the South Asian region and considering the fading remnants of the Mughal era on the subcontinent. Images from the Colonial Raj time and borrowed references from historic miniature schools are the primary focus of his art practice, and the connection between the images serve as a means of recalling the pain, loss, sacrifices and deprivation of the land. The set of repetitive images to form a single artwork allow the possibility of studying the continuous manipulation process of the subcontinent’s history has gone through. Similarly, the miniature technique is also going through the transformation process which practically supports the overall concept. Whether working on a large or small scale, Asif mostly uses traditional miniature techniques, developing them through juxtaposition, overlap and rearrangement to create new narratives.
