After the Image by Asad malhi

After the Image Solo Exhibition by Shahrukh Asad

After the Image traces a subtle but powerful shift, an entry into a world where painting moves beyond representation and begins to breathe through gesture, emotion and abstraction. In this solo exhibition, Shahrukh Asad turns away from the literal image to explore what remains after it dissolves: sensation, intuition, memory and the quiet resonance of presence.

Her works, created through acrylic, gold leaf and spray paint on canvas, unfold as atmospheric interiors. These materials allow her to move ﬂuidly between opacity and luminosity, density and breath. Spray paint introduces a sense of drift and dispersion, acrylic renders depth and structure and gold leaf punctuates the surfaces with moments of stillness and illumination. Together, they form a tactile language of becoming.

The works themselves act as starting point into the emotional terrain of the exhibition. Works such as Twilight Through Eternity, Luminous Fading and The Long Fade gesture toward transitions, spaces suspended between emergence and disappearance. Pieces like Blueprints of Elsewhere , Floating Between Elsewheres and Halfway to Unreal evoke the pull of distant, intangible landscapes, while Shattered Remembrance and What Remains speak to memory’s fragile and shifting architecture. More kinetic titles such as Neon Orbit III and Drifting in Ultraviolet reﬂect the energy and movement alive within her gestural marks.

For Shahrukh, abstraction is not an escape from reality but a revelation of what is often invisible: emotional residue subconscious movement, and spiritual yearning. The absence of figurative imagery widens the field, to encounter the work through their own memories, sensations and internal landscapes. Across these works, forms appear and dissolve, colour fields pulse or evaporate and meaning remains unfixed. Slow down, breathe and engage in a personal dialogue with what lies beneath the surface.

After the Image becomes more than an exhibition. It becomes a space of immersion and quiet discovery. When the image falls away, what remains is an intimate encounter with the essence of painting and with the self.

-FS Karachiwala

Artist : Shahrukh Asad

Artist Biography:

Shahrukh Asad is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose practice is rooted in expressive abstraction, where colour, form, and texture converge to evoke the unspoken dimensions of human experience. With a Master of Fine Arts from the prestigious Punjab University College of Art and Design, followed by a Master's in Business Management from Queen's University Belfast, she brings together the dual strengths of artistic mastery and strategic vision.

Through layers of luminous hues, gestural marks, and ﬂuid abstraction, Asad creates visual spaces that echo both intimacy and inﬁnity and a language of painting that resonates with

emotion while inviting viewers to encounter their own inner landscapes. Her exhibition history reﬂects both breadth and distinction. She has participated in 20 group exhibitions across Pakistan, Dubai, London, Rome and Venice including her notable 2024 exhibition at SB Art Gallery, London. One of her artworks is included in the collection of IDA Global Bahrain.

As a professional member of Visual Artists Ireland and Catalyst Arts, she gains access to exhibitions, collaborations, and professional resources that advance her artistic career. She was later invited as an artist speaker for the Artist Talk hosted by Visual Artists Ireland at the MAC, presenting alongside other established artists. She was a resident at Home Residency, Digital Art Studio Belfast, from August through November, engaging in focused studio practice and creative exploration. Asad practice also extends into curation, with her debut curatorial Exhibition "Tangled Traces of Presence", where she explored intersections of identity, memory, and materiality through diverse artistic voices. She also curated the calligraphy exhibition Bayan. Through her art, curation, and gallery, Shahrukh Asad, stands at the intersection of creation and leadership a painter of visions and a builder of platforms, working toward a future where art transcends boundaries and becomes a shared language of remembrance, resilience, and renewal.

Artist statement:

My work in After the Image emerges from a desire to move beyond representation and enter a space where painting becomes an intuitive, emotional, and sensory experience. Abstraction allows me to explore what I feel rather than what I see. Each canvas is a field of movement shaped by colour, gesture, and texture, where forms shift, dissolve, or reappear in unexpected ways. I approach my paintings as conversations rather than constructions. They evolve through layers of instinctive mark-making, moments of control and release, and the quiet presence of introspection. The process is fluid, often guided by rhythm, memory, and the subtle tensions between clarity and ambiguity. In this body of work, I am less interested in depicting the external world and more focused on revealing the internal states that influence how we perceive it. The absence of figurative imagery is intentional; it opens space for viewers to engage with the work through their own emotions, associations, and interpretations. After the Image invites a slower kind of looking, one that encourages contemplation, openness, and personal dialogue. Through abstraction, I aim to create environments that hold space for discovery, stillness, and the unfolding of meaning on the viewer’s own terms.