Artchawk

Shahid Sajjad, Seated Woman, 1974, Bronze, 30x38cm, Courtesy of Artchowk and the Family of the Artist

ArtChowk is an arts organization based in Karachi, Pakistan presenting visual art through curatorial projects and exhibitions emphasizing practices from the East and Near East. Through an inquisitive programme showing modern and contemporary art, the gallery presents a fresh perspective on historical art narratives. Informing the programme are discursive practices that raise questions and invite dialogue.

“Art is a state of being not becoming.” -Shahid Sajjad.

Shahid Sajjad (1936-2014) was a deeply philosophical artist for whom observing and recording the present was paramount. He spearheaded the group of artists that forms the historical modernist basis from which contemporary Pakistani artists inform their practices. A self-taught artist who became a Fellow of the NCA and founding member of IVSAA, the study of his practice and its underlying thought process informs the curricula of both these institutions. Executing his works himself, he imbued in them a compressed energy that was critically acclaimed, loved by his peers and revered by subsequent generations of artists.