The Gurmani Centre is delighted to invite you to an art exhibition titled Maps of Memory: An Exhibition of Iram Zia Raja’s Selected Works (2013–2023), curated by Quddus Mirza. This body of work is distinct for its innovative use of geometry, unusual chromatic compositions and emphasis on detail translated across several mediums. Each artwork offers a new reading of motifs and aesthetics broadly associated with the aesthetics of Islamic cultures, namely the Arabic script, geometric patterns, and arabesques. Instead of their usual tessellated configurations that exude a sense of infinity reverberating harmony, here they are laid out on an unseen grid in formations that are unique and affective, inviting attention to both form and meanings. Rendered as a visual inquiry into the aesthetics of the past, their compositions using fiber as a medium trace memory in a vocabulary that is both traditional and contemporary.

We look forward to seeing you there!

About the Artist:

Dr. Iram Zia Raja is the Dean of the Design Department at the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore, and is an accomplished textile designer with over three decades of experience. Her doctoral thesis titled “From Craft to Art and Design: Changing Patterns of Art Education (Art Education: From the Mayo School of Art to the National College of Arts)” has contributed to seminal research on the topic of post-colonial art and design education in Pakistan. As a practitioner of design in textiles and metals, she has had a number of solo exhibitions at leading art galleries, both inside and outside Pakistan. Her work deals with the presence of tradition and its contemporary possibilities. 

About the Curator:

Quddus Mirza is a visual artist, art critic and independent curator. He is the former Head of Fine Arts Department of the National College of Arts, and currently is a Professor in the School of Visual Art and Design at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. Mirza has shown extensively in numerous important group exhibitions, along with several one-person exhibitions, held in Pakistan and the UK. He has curated a number of exhibitions in Pakistan, UK, Kazakhstan, and India. Editor of online magazine ‘Art Now Pakistan’ Mirza is the co-author of book “50 Years of Visual Arts in Pakistan”, has a regular weekly art column in The News on Sunday, and has written essays on art in international art catalogues and other publications.