Afshar Malik
Afshar Malik is a highly respected associate professor at National College of Arts with an illustrious career spanning over 30 years.
His oil paintings contain elements of collage. Fascinated by the way in which images are captured and how they evolve within our memories - the work itself is dreamlike, complex and multilayered with many surprise elements slowly unveiling themselves.
His work “The king's Square” shows the landscape of Pakistan rendered as an exquisite traditional carpet depicting Royal hunting expeditions (a “shahkar”). The kings themselves, however, are shown as sleeping while the land falls into chaos. A poignant political statement through which we see both the artists love for his homeland and his frustration at watching it slowly collapse into anarchy.