Islamabad
Pakistan’s first-ever ‘joint-solo’ exhibition of paintings by the well-established Tassaduq Sohail and Riaz Rafi opens today (Friday) at gallery6, which has created history in the country’s art world by encouraging a collaborative venture between artists of two different genres.
Aptly titled ‘Inimitable Consilience,’ the show offers 24 paintings completed by the two artists over a period of 16 months. The exhibition also includes a few paintings by each artist to help viewers understand their individual styles before they appreciate the combination.
A strong bond of friendship has existed between Sohail and Rafi for more than three decades. The idea of working together came when Sohail once doodled with a black permanent marker on a catalogue of Rafi’s exhibition and showed it to a common friend stating “I have defaced Rafi’s paintings.” The message soon reached Rafi, who rushed to see this “massacre” of his work but was stunned to see the result – the outcome was outstanding artwork that was unique but had the characteristics of both the painters. These doodles, the beginning of this historical show, are also included in the exhibition.
This unexpected product not only surprised Rafi, but also led to a new conviction that he and Sohail both should initiate a venture of painting the same canvases together. The first few paintings were shared with gallery6 in early 2014 and the gallery immediately offered to hold the first joint-solo show to these two leading artists. Soon their inner souls began to resonate together and the canvases they painted have unleashed the outcome of their visual unison and collective imagination.
“Although we began the work, we did not realize how difficult it was going to be. On each painting, we had multiple discussions over its evolution and completion. But since we had great understanding of each other’s approach, we successfully accomplished the task,” 52 year-old Rafi.

Source The News