A group show at Artscene Gallery brings together artists whose practices engage with what time, change, and transformation fail to erase. Across painting, drawing, mixed media, sculpture and material-based processes, the works in this show speak to persistence of pain, memory, belief, joy and human presence. Rather than proposing resolution or closure, the works foreground continuity. Traces remain visible, memory is held within surfaces and structures, belief adapts without disappearance and affect circulates even with restraint. While each artist approaches these concerns from a distinct positionality, the works collectively assert that certain experience resist erasure, instead shifting form and reconfiguring how meaning is carried forward.

Basit Iqbal shares, “my artwork confronts the widely accepted myth that time is a healer. We’re often told that pain fades, that wounds close, that the passing of days brings peace, distance. It blurs, it muffles, but it does not undo. The textures in my artwork are scarred and weathered, layered with marks that speak to experiences etched too deeply to vanish. Faded colours and fractured symmetry suggest a story that worn down, not rewritten. The damage is not decorative, but permanent. And yet, it is not hopeless. What time offers is not healing, but adjustment. We learn to stand up with the weight still on our shoulders. We reshape ourselves around the ache. Pain becomes part of our architecture, invisible to others but foundation to who we are.”

Isra Noman is a visual artist and known for her stunning black-and-white line work. Through her practice she explores themes of connection, transformation and subtle tension between chaos and harmony. “I begin with a single line, unsure of where it will lead. Sometimes, it rests on white and sometimes it pushes through black. Each surface asks something different of the line, on white it feels exposed, on black it leans to resist. Slowly, the lines meet, overlap and hold each other. What forms is not an image but a state of being. These works carry moments of heaviness and pause, of connection and retreat. They speak of saying where learning feels easier, of finding balance between light and darkness and of learning how fragile things when held together, can endure.”

Muhammad Asif is a Lahore based artist who works primary in oil paintings. “ I focus portraying roosters in amusing scenarios, like playing soccer or enjoying other playful activities rather than just being seen as farm animals. I want to people to view roosters as lively and joyful creature. My aim is to spread happiness through my colourful and playful paintings.”

Muhammad Ubaid Tariq’s series of artwork that he calls “Formations” present an interplay between tradition and technology. “Quranic verses are meticulously encoded into binary coding scheme, utilising dried seeds reminiscent of the ritualistic Kul Khaani. This synthesis extends beyond aesthetic considerations, as each bit of code transform an Arabic alphabet into binary values that literally replicate a faithful translation even as it questions a superficial reading of religious scripts. The very complexity of this binary code is symbolic of faith. As if inviting the viewer to think about traditions, technology, and translation in this modern age. I’m shaped by inherited visual traditions, yet I constantly negotiate with new tools, new systems, and new ways of seeing.”

Mustabshirah Shah’s visual practice is rooted in traditional techniques of oil painting. “I explore the subtleties of light, shadow and expression. Through portraiture, I aim to capture the essence and individuality of my subjects, revealing the intricate complexities of the human experience. “

Rida Fatima Bukhair explores memory, space and socio-cultural transformations within contemporary society. “By engaging with fragments of ordinary, she highlights how urban development, social structures and time reshape human experiences.”

The exhibition invites the viewers to reflect on whar persists emotionally, physically and culturally. The show focuses on endurance, examining how what remains continues to shape presence, perception and lived experience.

CAPTION
Basit Iqbal, Permanent Marks, 28 x 40 inches - Mix medium ( Acrylic Inks, Soft Pastels & UV ) on Matte Paper
Isra Noman, Movements Between Stillness, 54 x 60 inches, Archival Ink on Canvas
Rida Fatima Bukhari, Untitled II, 13 x 10 inches - Wood & Concrete
Muhammad Asif, The Weight of the Game, 51 x 33 inches, Oil on Canvas
Mustabshirah Shah, Untitled III, 19 x 29 inches - Graphite on Paper
Muhammad Ubaid Tariq, The Shores Cry Out, the Land Remembers, 46 x 52 inches - Seeds on Canvas
Isra Noman, As Within, So it Rises, 54 x 60 inches, Archival Ink on Canvas