All the artworks whether in acrylic on wood, on paper or on canvas seemed to be in quest to know and find what lies beyond? The curious Jamil used all the natural structures to solve his concerns about mankind and nature.
He likes to work on large scale sculptures. His artworks both paintings and sculptures denote society's various behaviours towards an individual.
He incorporated the traditional models with modernity in his works. In a way he tried to preserve his rich cultural heritage and therefore used Balochi embroidery patterns and old rug designs in his artworks.
The way he created his paintings and sculptures showed flexibility of his ideas and his attitude towards society.
"As an artist, I always tried to work with issues that concern mankind and nature ... and to explore diverse media and a variety of themes, which are somehow related to one another and through them to me," he wrote in a statement.
"As far back as I can remember I was always making things, creating junk sculpture before I even knew what it was. Every surface that I came across had to be drawn upon, and I would utilise any material available, metal wood, or cloth. I used to make planes, cars all sorts of things without any guidance; it was a natural expression for me, like breathing."
He loves to work with different materials and experience their physical nature and thus enjoy working with specific mode of art. He seemed to accept the challenge of the material he has chosen to work with and in the end he moulds the medium in his favour and creates his desired form.
"Progress comes from practice not from words and theories," he said.
The themes in his paintings and sculptures reflected the self of a person. How an individual stands in a society. What is his place and what place does he want. The compositions of his paintings showed images that represent emotions through heavy textured spontaneous lines and geometric design that recur in lines after lines creating repeated forms that depict similarities between people and situations. He used the variations of geometric forms to present his views about issues by creating movement through these forms. The overlapping forms gave the impression of weaving carpets. He tried to move beyond and tell new stories about socio-political issues.
There were larger diptychs and triptychs in the exhibition. One can sense the rugged landscape of Balochistan in his sculptors of wood titled "Extremity" which was about four and a half feet in height. The outer side of the work was in black colour while the inner side has multicolour patterns portraying the inner coloured personalities of people who seemed so dull and lifeless from outside. Other paintings titled "Belief", "Self", Root" "Caos" and "Self Similarities" all pointed towards a uniform attitude expected by the society towards certain issues and every person look to other person to imitate the acceptable behaviour for the society.
Belonging to Nushki, Balochistan and a graduate from the National college of Arts, Lahore Jamil is a multi disciplinary artist he is also a member of the teaching faculty at NCA. He has been artist in resident Vermont Studio Center, USA. He has also been awarded the M.A. Rangoonwala Award in 2005, in Karachi and the Prize of National Excellence Award - Visual Arts, 8th National Exhibition, Lahore and Honourable Prize International Art Biennale in 2008, Bangladesh.
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