My practice attempts to create a space between reality and fiction.

Working through portraiture, I draw from my surroundings, memory, and found images to construct characters rather than representations, allowing imagined narratives to emerge through subtle shifts in appearance and context. Fiction functions as a quiet tool for reflection, where identity remains ambiguous, unstable, and open to interpretation rather than fixed or resolved. Together, these works attempt to celebrate life through absence, silence, and reconstruction — not as a complete truth, but as a series of rediscovered connections knitted through memory, fiction, and renewal.— Ahsan Jamal

Curated by Maryam Irfan, Gerd Hamayi—a term drawn from Persian meaning “gathering”—embodies the spirit of collective return and shared histories. The exhibition brings together the National College of Arts’ Miniature Painting Class of 2003, the largest cohort of its kind produced by the institution at the time. Reuniting more than two decades later, and as the National College of Arts marks 150 years of its legacy, the exhibition offers a reflective inquiry into evolving practices, artistic trajectories, and the ways in which time has shaped individual and collective work.
The exhibition features works by Ahsan Jamal, Attiya Shaukat, Ayesha Durrani, Farheen Maqsood, Habiba Zaman Khan, Hajrah Khan, Khadim Ali, Mahreen Zuberi, Mahwish Chisty, Maryam Irfan, Murad Khan Mumtaz, and Shoaib Mahmood.
Presented as part of Chawkandi Art Gallery’s 40-year celebrations, Gerd Hamayi remains on view through 31 December.

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