Controlling the narrative – Part 1/6
Pakistani Female Figurative Artists Series
These women are the ‘joie de vivre’ of the Pakistani Figurative Art Scene.
By Anum Lasharie
With great pride, I present to you 6 female artists who are changing the narrative and shooing away the cultural stigmas attached to figurative artistic expression in Pakistan.
These 6 brilliant artists who will be introduced to you over 6 individual features, ignite a unique dialogue, ripe with debate and controversy. Challenging love, angst, and society, with awe-inspiring abandon.
Welcome to part 1/6 in our series of introducing some of the coolest female figurative artists Pakistan has to offer.
Shehzil Malik
Shehzil Malik is a designer and illustrator whose work is fuelled by social reform. The premise for much of her independent and collaborative work revolves around the deconstruction of the societal memes that surround women’s rights, feminism and identity constructs.
Malik, a Fulbright scholar with an MFA in Visual Communication Design from the Rochester Institute of Technology is also part of the International Development Innovation Network (IDIN).
Bold statements on screen and canvas, it is her unique story telling approach that strikes us the most. Fearless and honest, we see the many truths that women face on the day to day. It’s not always as simple as walking down the street (if you know what I mean). Shezil is as courageous as her characters in her art, with talent and street smarts a match, she’s designed a commercially viable range of valiant posters that call upon thoughtful social messaging and brilliant commercial aesthetics.
Shehzil’s work can be purchased from her online print shop and The Last Word in Lahore, Pakistan.
