With simple landscapes, painter Kaleem Khan shows us the unseen Balochistan

Contemporary painter Kaleem Khan will exhibit his artworks at Royaat Gallery on Thursday (today).

The Quetta-based recipient of President’s Pride of Performance award trained under the master, Khalid Iqbal, at the National College of Arts and graduated in 1982. Influenced by Iqbal’s work on landscape, he returned to Balochistan to paint scenes that may have otherwise remained invisible.

Khan has exhibited extensively across Pakistan and abroad in Canada, China, Germany, India, Korea, Oman, the UK and the US. Currently, he is the director of fine arts department at Balochistan University of Information Technology Engineering and Management Sciences in Quetta.

Khan’s latest solo show, hosted by Royaat Gallery, presents his native Balochistan through a kaleidoscope of colour. This is a celebration of this land, a poignant reminder of what is in danger of being lost due to attacks on its people. Khan’s images evoke the romance of mankind’s symbiosis with nature -- a relationship that seems elusive given the relentless drive of modernity.

His paintings capture the contradictory forces in nature. His mountains have a dark density, underscoring the fragility of mankind that is often seen as nothing more than a speck against their fierce majesty.

Khan paints his figures with grace and fluidity -- a technique that stands out masterfully in his canvas of thundering horses and their riders. Khan also captures the striking Baloch coastline with two boats moored on a desolate beach.

Published in Dawn November 10th, 2016