I am naturally drawn to the forms that Mukhtar composes on the canvas

Mukhtar Kazi paints like he speaks; in a measured and calm tone, pausing and thinking before each sentence and with a depth and baritone that makes you hang on to every word.

Artist: Mukhtar Kazi

I have been acquainted with Mukhtar’s work for the last decade or so; since the time I bought my first work by him not having known him or his oeuvre personally. I was simply attracted to the work itself. There was a stillness yet a gentle vibration in the work that captivates me even now after a decade and I continue to find layers, dualities and depths that I was unaware of when I acquired it.

Being an architect, I am naturally drawn to the forms that Mukhtar composes on the canvas. I can almost imagine him in the process of painting, gently applying the brush to the canvas with the lightest of touches and then building up the layers as he goes on, extracting a balance between the different personalities and tones of the same color at times and teasing out the various nuances of chiaroscuro to achieve depth and volume on a simple two-dimensional canvas.

Recent Painting by Mukhtar Kazi

There is no rushing of the brush, not a casual stroke here or there, nor a sign of the artist’s ego. Instead, there is a driven commitment, both personal and artistic to draw out the slivers of light that seem to be hiding behind these veils of colors and which want to break free.

His canvases draw you in and hold you in a grip once you drop your guard and decide to enter them. Your eyes move furtively across the canvas following the angled forms and sharp edges and then turn when they encounter color which then pulls you further into the deep abyss of its multifarious shades. There is no escape.

I believe Art should not only be about the “pretty picture”.

Art is a medium of communication that needs to have the capacity and the depth of character to make its viewer want to converse with it and go back renewed.    

And in Mukhtar Kazi, that medium has found a sensitive and devoted messenger.

 Prashant Prabhu

Architect.

October 21 2021

Press ReleaseFrom: 16^th to 22^nd November 2021

“Silent Forms”An Exhibition of Paintings by well-known artist Mukhtar Kazi

VENUE:

Jehangir Art Gallery

161-B, M.G. Road,

Kala Ghoda, Mumbai 400001

Timing: 11am to 7pm