*The following is being posted on behalf of Moiz Kazmi with all credits:

With all these days passing by and this year coming to an end, am getting happier, gay and proud – of myself, this city, its art, the artists and my love. A new gallery opens up at the much ancient Shafi Courts, Poppy Seed, by Indus TV group. The principal curator at Poppy Seed, the excitingly named gallery, is Sumbul Khan.

Sumbul has carefully curated a collection comprising works of Mohsin Shafi, Samar Zia, Ambreen Hameed, Mariam Ahmed, Arif Taha, Sonia Shah, Sausan Saulat, Ammad Tahir, Huma Shah and Emaan Mahmud. The exhibition titled ‘Dear Diary’, is not inspired or curated keeping Britney Spear’s song of the same name, but these are confessions of the showcased artists.

The launch day started with readings by Sanam Saeed, Momin Zafar, Omar Bilal Akhtar and Zoe Viccaji, who came to the gallery a week prior to the opening day and studied the pieces which were going to be on exhibit. Accordingly, they chose what poems to read which related to the work exhibited. Reading session was a welcome change and added more flavour to the entire showing, also one could relate easily to the work displayed. One could hear pieces read from Faraz Maqsood Hamidi’s book SKIN.

Worth Mentioning Displays:

– Arif Taha’s ‘I see, I record’ is an eye-catching visual presentation of a pencil which hangs from the ceiling with strings on a mirror with wooden stand..
– Sonia Shah’s ‘Self Portrait’ is a girl behind a locked carved door. Her dress is stuck in between the door and one could see her frightened eyes peeking behind the chained wooden door. This is one of the best pieces at display here.
– Sausan Saulat’s ‘Bored on Board’ was a series of paintings showing a young boy playing, thinking and contemplating on the canvases which were pages from a notebook. Sadly this is not for sale.
– Ammad Tahir showcased a series of paintings. His work showed growth of a dancer or most likely how he himself wanted or still desires to be a dancer. The first piece showed shades of the dancer’s past and then how the dancer loses himself in this world amongst all the machinery and finally how he starts dancing in his dreams once he could not fulfill his desires in reality.
– Huma Shah’s ‘The Struggle’ was a beautiful painting of a man struggling to climb a dangerous edgy mountain range.

Poppy Seed gallery is a breath of fresh air in the local art scene. One hopes to see excellently curated exhibitions here keeping in mind Sumbul’s study of history and Islamic art. Dear Diary exhibition is on till 9th January 2010.