Size is everything

12:37pm Thursday 19th June 2008

Aisha Khalid's paintings may be small, but she is big in Pakistan. One of her homeland's leading artists - which has an exciting new generation of younger artists breaking through - Aisha is now celebrating having her first solo show in the UK, at the Pump House Gallery in Battersea Park.

Khalid's exhibition is called Ongoing Conversation and is a retrospective of her career since it began in earnest in 1999. Which may seem a little premature but it is not comparable to whippersnapper celebrities and sportsmen who have biographies before they've achieved anything (Andrew Murray anyone?).

Ongoing Conversation in fact charts her gradual shift from exquisite, small-scale paintings on wasli paper to newer media such as video, and also includes new works commissioned by the gallery. Best-known for the highly skilled tradition of Mughal miniature painting, Aisha has revitalised the medium with contemporary issues, ideas and subject matter.

Aisha, 34, says: "I am very happy to be having my first solo show in the UK and it is nice to see all my work together in one place. I really enjoy the miniature painting because the technique suits my temperament, I like sitting on the floor peacefully and working this way.

"Now I am following the same technique but on a larger scale, my newer work is bigger and more symbolic."

Asserting that "my work is totally tied up with my life", personal narrative and social comment run side by side in Ongoing Conversation. The decorative surface of her paintings often belie a socio-political content, for example cultural expectations and stereotyping, oppression of women (including in Western society) and global politics following 9/11.

Born in Faisalabad, Pakistan, Aisha currently lives and works in Lahore, which houses the only place where one can study miniature painting - the National College of Arts.

After going on to teach this subject, Aisha undertook a two-year residency at the world-famous Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. Khalid has exhibited widely in Europe, USA, Australia and Asia including international biennials and art fairs and has artwork in collections worldwide.

Ongoing Conversation by Aisha Khalid; Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, SW11 4NJ; until July 27, call 020 7350 0523 or visit wandsworth.gov.uk/gallery for details.

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