AAN Art Space & Museum

We are pleased to present our first conversation for our publishing practices series at the Kurachee x AAN Reading Room

Exhausted Geographies: A conversation between Abeera Kamran, Zahra Malkani and Shahana Rajani

Tuesday, 18th December 2023
5-7pm, at AAN Art Space & Museum, Karachi
Open and free to all
Please sign up via link in bio

Exhausted Geographies is a collaborative publishing practice by Shahana Rajani, Zahra Malkani and Abeera Kamran, based in Karachi, Pakistan. It is a series of publications exploring image, text and the city. Each volume of Exhausted Geographies mobilizes a crucial, cross-disciplinary political imaginary to rethink current representations of Karachi and includes a wide range of topics that provide new insights into the social, spatial and discursive fabric of the city.

Exhausted Geographies is now 10 years old. It remains an anchoring project amongst the various practices of its core team, Shahana Rajani, Zahra Malkani and Abeera Kamran. Exhausted Geographies has proven to be fertile ground for new imaginings and streams of inquiry for its team. Shahana, Zahra and Abeera will reflect upon how invigorating a self published project can be within an art and design career. They will share insights into their collaborative and individual practices and concerns in an open and interactive discussion.

Wilting From the Gaze - Review by Maheen Aziz in Dawn on the exhibition by Marium Agha at AAN Art Space & Museum. This exhibition has been curated by Scheherazade Junejo!

EXHIBITION: WILTING FROM THE GAZE Marium Agha’s artwork critiques the impact of the male gaze on women

Where dreams and darkness intertwine,
A realm where fears and fantasies release,
Creating visions that are both divine.
Oh beautiful nightmares, enchanting sights,
Within the realm where shadows bloom,
Where stars ignite ethereal lights,
And moonbeams pierce the inky gloom.
Silent whispers echo through the night,
Unveiling secrets, untamed and wild,
Unleashing terrors, yet with pure delight,
For even in darkness, beauty is compiled.
-Marium Agha

AAN Art Space & Museum AAN Art Space & Museum is a curatorial & art publishing organisation. AAN has been a dedicated space

Join us for a conversation with Mariah Lookman, Sumbul Khan and Nafisa Rizvi as they respond to the exhibition ‘The Lost River and The Rising Sea’ by Sadia Salim, along with other creatives and art students.

6:00 pm, Friday 6th October, 2023

AAN Art Space & Museum

AAN Art Space & Museum AAN Art Space & Museum is a curatorial & art publishing organisation. AAN has been a dedicated space

The Lost River and the Rising Sea

Opening Preview on 21st September, 2023
4:00-8.00 pm

Reading by Asma Mundrawala and Sadia Salim

Exhibition continues: 21st September to 19th October, 2023

Collection of documents, words, and visuals from the edge of Cholistan.

“The work presented emerges from the aesthetic of neglect, loss, and decay - both personal and universal. It questions our relationship to ‘place’ at a time of rapidly transitioning ecology, as we observe a continuous and aggressive occupation of the land under the garb of progress and prosperity. It includes material found in a village home as an archive, a repository of ideas and knowledge, some of it from a century ago”. - Artist Statement by Sadia Salim

AAN Art Space & Museum AAN Art Space & Museum is a curatorial & art publishing organisation. AAN has been a dedicated space

Posted • We are reposting these images via the wonderful Imran Qureshi, one of Pakistan’s most renowned contemporary artists on the global stage, a pioneer of neo-miniature contemporary art who created the wonderful IQXIU project for Islamabad United and AAN Ideas Lab! These included a kit design for the Islamabad United team kit with a massive public art project, a performance art project, a film and a limited edition fashion run! Posted • Bridging cricket and Art together: an Image from IQXIU, gear kit designing and beyond, commissioned by AAN Collection and Islamabad United for PSL, back in 2021.

AAN Art Space & Museum AAN Art Space & Museum is a curatorial & art publishing organisation. AAN has been a dedicated space

Eid Mubarak from the AAN Collection! This work by Aisha Khalid is in the AAN Collection and is titled Pattern to Follow, 2010. This work was exhibited at the Sharjah Biennial and it is reminiscent of the new crescent moon. The work was inspired by the architectural details in the domes of the 17th Century Mughal Badshahi Mosque in Lahore!

AAN Art Space & Museum AAN Art Space & Museum is a curatorial & art publishing organisation. AAN has been a dedicated space

'Amna Naqvi’s lifelong love of art, literature and learning has come together in the AAN Foundation, an effort to provide support and platforms for cultural projects related to Asia. Born in Pakistan, Amna and her family now call Hong Kong home, having also lived previously in Indonesia and Singapore.’

Learn about collecting contemporary Pakistani art in ‘An Interview with Amna Naqvi.’

An Interview with Amna Naqvi — Orientations Amna Naqvi’s lifelong love of art, literature and learning has come together in the AAN Foundation, an effort to provide sup-port and platforms for cultural projects related to Asia. Born in Pakistan, Amna and her family now call Hong Kong home, having also lived previously in Indonesia and Singap...

The Table 01
a project space/ a gathering/ a feast of sorts
Saturday 25th March 2023, 12 noon - 3pm
AAN Art Space & Museum

In conjunction with The Reading Room by Kurachee
With provocations by Ahmer Naqvi, Sohail Abdullah, Vidha Saumya, Alana Hunt, Chris Kurian, Rajyashri Goody, Samyak Ghosh and Fazal Rizvi

Project designed by Fazal Rizvi!

The Table 01
a project space/ a gathering/ a feast of sorts

Saturday 25th March 2023, 12 noon - 3pm
AAN Art Space & Museum
In conjunction with The Reading Room by Kurachee

With provocations by Ahmer Naqvi, Sohail Abdullah, Vidha Saumya, Alana Hunt, Chris Kurian, Rajyashri Goody, Samyak Ghosh and Fazal Rizvi

Project designed by Fazal Rizvi!

Reading Room
AAN x Kurachee

A temporary reading room organized by AAN Art Space & Museum and Kurachee with collected and published art publications.

March 16 - April 7 2023

Museum Timings
Monday to Saturday 12 - 7pm

From March 16 to April 7, AAN Art Space & Museum will be a free and accessible reading room featuring collected art publications to browse and buy.

The publications include local art publications, zines, artist books, catalogues and more.

Talks, workshops and discussions with Fazal Rizvi and Sophia Balagamwala to follow

If you would like to add your publication to the reading room for others to be able to see, please contact AAN Art Space & Museum. , , , ,

AAN Art Space & Museum AAN Art Space & Museum is a curatorial & art publishing organisation. AAN has been a dedicated space

Public Programming-Artist Talk and Recital as part of the exhibition ‘Sweet Dreams’ by Sarah Kazmi.

Sweet Dreams
A Solo Project by Sarah Kazmi

The show continues till 16th December 2022, Gallery timings 12 noon to 7 pm

Sweet Dreams is curated by Malika Abbas.

This exhibition is supported by Fund for Sound and Image, Norwegian Cultural Foundation, Office for Contemporary Art Norway and AAN Foundation.

Curatorial Note
‘Sweet Dreams’ (translated from English as میٹھے خواب) reveals the hopes of many a Pakistani immigrant living in the city of Oslo in Norway. Questioning dreams and their link to immigration, Kazmi is questioning what transpires when a person or a family move overseas and if their aspirations of building a new home in a foreign land are actually realised or remains an elusive quest.

‘Sweet Dreams’ is the first chapter of Kazmi’s long term research based project ‘The Abandoned Mansions of Pakistan’ that focuses on the Pakistani diaspora in Norway, specifically in the city of Oslo. Touching on diasporic hopes around immigration, memory, nostalgia, and consumption; the research project uses a combination of architectural drawings, performance, in situ installations and image-based works to explore immigrant cuisine as a basis for communication, knowledge dissemination and production in daily lives of immigrant communities.

AAN Art Space & Museum AAN Art Space & Museum is a curatorial & art publishing organisation. AAN has been a dedicated space

Sweet Dreams
A Solo Project by Sarah Kazmi

13th October 2022
4:00 pm to 8:00 pm
AAN Art Space & Museum

Recital by the artist at 5:30 pm

The show continues till 16th December 2022, Gallery timings 12 noon to 7 pm

Sweet Dreams is curated by Malika Abbas.

This exhibition is supported by Fund for Sound and Image, Norwegian Cultural Foundation, Office for Contemporary Art Norway and AAN Foundation.

Curatorial Note
‘Sweet Dreams’ (translated from English as میٹھے خواب) reveals the hopes of many a Pakistani immigrant living in the city of Oslo in Norway. Questioning dreams and their link to immigration, Kazmi is questioning what transpires when a person or a family move overseas and if their aspirations of building a new home in a foreign land are actually realised or remains an elusive quest.

‘Sweet Dreams’ is the first chapter of Kazmi’s long term research based project ‘The Abandoned Mansions of Pakistan’ that focuses on the Pakistani diaspora in Norway, specifically in the city of Oslo. Touching on diasporic hopes around immigration, memory, nostalgia, and consumption; the research project uses a combination of architectural drawings, performance, in situ installations and image-based works to explore immigrant cuisine as a basis for communication, knowledge dissemination and production in daily lives of immigrant communities.

AAN Art Space & Museum AAN Art Space & Museum is a curatorial & art publishing organisation. AAN has been a dedicated space

Review of Khadim Ali and Areez Katki’s current exhibition ‘No Other Home But This’ at Govett Brewster Museum, New Zealand in the ‘Pantograph Punch’ magazine!

Empires Unspooled and Rewound On half-forgotten histories, kinship and the paradoxes of homeland. Divyaa Kumar on the strikingly impactful works in There Is No Other Home But This at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery telling stories of resilience and triumph.

‘In The Deep End’ opens at AAN Art Space & Museum on Thursday, 12th of May. Featuring the works of Anushka Rustomji, Sara Khan, Sulaiman Khilji and Syed Husain. The exhibition has been curated by Malika Abbas.

The river is within us, the sea is all about us.

- T.S. Eliot

“The sea has many voices/ Many gods and many voices”, T.S. Eliot wrote. We first sense the world through the fluid inside our mother’s womb, we communicate with the world outside through this body of water. Once born we are really thrown into the deep end of the endless ocean we call ‘life’. Only to be consumed by it. Encountering, batting or embracing its demons and its gods.

Oceans have held varying places in the imagination of societies, always linked to particular cultures and shifting in line with predominant world views and developing socio-economic and technological capacities. There are many ways of conceptualising the ocean, and different concepts exist concurrently, resulting in a multiplicity of perspectives that are changing over time. Water (such as the sea) thus, may become a metaphor for birth and rebirth, violence and death, self-discovery, spiritual journey, metamorphosis, change, inspiration and renewal. It becomes a language of our experience, a voice to our emotions. Its fluid nature allows it to be adaptive to each of our needs. Over and over again. Like the endless motion of the waves.

- Malika Abbas

Eid Mubarak from the AAN Collection! This work by Aisha Khalid is in the AAN Collection and is titled Pattern to Follow, 2010. This work was exhibited at the Sharjah Biennial and it is reminiscent of the new crescent moon. The work was inspired by the architectural details in the domes of the 17th Century Mughal Badshahi Mosque in Lahore!

Review of the exhibition ‘Chinese Whispers’ by Fatima Munir Amjad by Quddus Mirza in the News on Sunday newspaper. The exhibition is currently being shown at AAN Art Space & Museum.

Bringing out her best in China | Encore | thenews.com.pk In her new work, Fatima Munir explores the impact of Chinese trade and cultural influence

‘Now that the greatest knot of fury had been undone [... ], finally his face has become serene and radiant, his eyes clearer than ever it was in the exercise of his past reasons. What does he say?’ He said: Leave me like this, I have come full circle and I understand. The world must be read upside down. Everything makes sense now.

“The Tale of Roland Crazed with Love”
-Italo Calvino

Installation View - Chinese Whispers
A Solo Exhibition by Fatima Munir
24th March 2022 - 4:00 to 8:00pm
AAN Art Space & Museum

Chinese Whispers - A Solo Exhibition by Fatima Munir, 24th March, 2022 - 4:00 to 8:00pm, AAN Art Space & Museum .amjad

Review of the show ‘Notes From A Familiar Place’ at AAN Art Space & Museum - Review by Ammara Jabbar titled ‘Fragments Of The Self’ in The Karachi Collective.
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Ammara Jabbar reviews the group show titled 'Notes from a Familiar Place' which opened at AAN Art Space and Museum on the 3rd of February, and was on display till the 10th of March. The show was curated by Fazal Rizvi.

'The show is a quiet cultivation of fragments of self and beyond, that slowly but shrewdly reveal themselves as potent renditions of despair, loss, redemption and existence. It is carefully maneuvered through the artists’ personal archives, real or imagined, it lulls in and out of the feeling of an old friend that is bursting at the seams with stories, leaving behind the bitter-sweet taste of nostalgia. (Fazal) Rizvi’s presence in the show is unmistakable, he is adept at taking meticulous slivers of thoughts and dignifying them with cautious distinction, untainted by flourish.'

To read the full article please visit our website www.thekarachicollective.com (link in bio)




.khurram1

Fragments of Self - The Karachi Collective Ammara JabbarAmmara Jabbar is an artist and writer based in Karachi, Pakistan. Jabbar graduated from the Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture in 2015, since then she has displayed her artwork nationally and internationally. She was the recipient of…

Repost “While cricket allows us to connect and replenish our collective energy, art is where we get to dream - to imagine new, more hopeful worlds.”

It is rare to get an opportunity to combine my two obsessions - art and cricket. A few weeks back I was invited to do precisely that for a feature in Pakistan’s ‘News on Sunday’ - on the collaboration between the artist Imran Qureshi, and Ali and Amna Naqvi’s team in the PSL franchise - Islamabad United. A truncated version of the text was printed in the Sports section of the News on Sunday - 20.2.22 (accessible on their website). A fuller version - with more ‘arty’ context - is available on my academia page. Link in bio.

Images 1-4 courtesy Imran Qureshi

Image 5 extract from my curatorial essay – Rock Paper Scissors: Notes on Play. The image of immigrant labourers playing cricket on makeshift grounds is by WTD Magazine. Full essay also available on my academia page. The first time I touched on art & cricket.

Image 6 - cover of catalogue accompanying the UAE’s National Pavilion at Venice.

Courtesy National Pavilion UAE

In the Frangipani Courtyard at AAN. Public Programming to accompany the current exhibition ‘notes from a familiar place’ at AAN Art Space & Museum. Publication Launch and Sharing Circle with the artists of the exhibition ‘notes from a familiar place’ on the 4th of March. This exhibition is a conversation with the artist and curator Fazal Rizvi. Opening ‘Notes from a Familiar Place’ on the 3rd of February at AAN Art Space & Museum. Artists Featured: Bushra Anis, Filza Baloch, Manahil Khurram, Samra Mansoor and Zahabia Khozema. AAN Art Space & Museum is committed to providing a platform and supporting all artists by robust exhibition programming. Additionally all proceeds for the artworks will go to the artists in full.

This exhibition with these five young artists, attempts to register and document their associations and negotiations with space and place. Places that they inhabit, places that they walk and travel through, places that they investigate, excavate and dig into, places that they look at tenderly and care for, places that are up-close and intimate, and others that are distant, places from their memory and places in their imaginary, places of pain and also that of healing.


prehistory .khurram1

Public Programming to accompany the current exhibition ‘notes from a familiar place’ at AAN Art Space & Museum. Publication Launch and Sharing Circle with the artists of the exhibition ‘notes from a familiar place’ on the 4th of March. This exhibition is a conversation with the artist and curator Fazal Rizvi. Opening ‘Notes from a Familiar Place’ on the 3rd of February at AAN Art Space & Museum. Artists Featured: Bushra Anis, Filza Baloch, Manahil Khurram, Samra Mansoor and Zahabia Khozema.

This exhibition with these five young artists, attempts to register and document their associations and negotiations with space and place. Places that they inhabit, places that they walk and travel through, places that they investigate, excavate and dig into, places that they look at tenderly and care for, places that are up-close and intimate, and others that are distant, places from their memory and places in their imaginary, places of pain and also that of healing.

AAN Art Space & Museum is committed to providing a platform and supporting all artists by robust exhibition programming. Additionally all proceeds for the artworks will go to the artists in full.