I saw how the night came

I Saw How the Night came; the title of this painting is taken from the Domination of Black poem by Wallace Stevens. Solangi always take inspiration from the literary sources; literature somehow gives him a conceptual drive to create his visuals. It sets the plot for his works. Through this stance he fined that the work is already staged before its creation. It’s like a storyteller retelling the story and from a painter’s perspective reimagining the picture in visual vocabulary, this way he is connected with the oral, written and visual tradition of the artistic sensibilities.

Anchored boat indicates the arrival of someone. Traditionally, boats have been painted in famous paintings with various purposes and symbols. The periwinkle flower is a leitmotif in his work and here it is used as a backdrop as well as in the moon that is placed almost in the middle of the painting. Periwinkle flower is called SadaBahar in the Urdu language, which he uses as a metaphor of time in his work.

AqeelSolangi was born in Ranipur, Sindh. He graduated with honours from the prestigious National College of Arts, Lahore in 2003 with a major in Painting, followed by his first Master’s degree MA (Hons.) Visual Art in 2005. He received his second Master’s degree MA Fine Art (pass with merit) from the Bath School of Art and Design – Bath Spa University, UK in 2016. He was the recipient of the renowned International Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust Visiting Artist Fellowship for the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, London in 2006. Since then, he has been teaching at the National College of Arts, Rawalpindi, currently as an Associate Professor and Head of the Fine Arts department (Painting/Sculpture). Solangi’s work has been showcased in Pakistan and internationally. He was part of the 2013 Pakistani Artists’ workshop in China. Solangi has received ‘A Vision of the Future-2006’ Young Artists Award by the Lahore Arts Council in 2006. Major survey of his work was exhibited at the Chawkandi Art in 2019, that was accompanied the publication ‘Fictional Homelands’. His work has been reviewed by Dr. Michele Whiting, Dr. Akbar Naqvi, AasimAkhtar, Marjorie Hussain, NafisaRizvi, Salwat Ali, Noor JehanMecklai and Sally Bennett. He has worked as sign and cinema board painter at Mehboob Painters in Khairpur (Mir’s), and also attended extensive art courses at an early stage of his career at renowned artist MussaratMirza’s studio in Sukkur, Sindh. AqeelSolangi lives and works in Rawalpindi.