Music, dance and live painting sessions enthral audience.

KARACHI -- The second Nigaah Art Awards were held at the Mohatta Palace Museum on Saturday evening. The award-giving ceremony was interspersed with musical performances, dances and a live painting session in which Saeed Qureshi made an artwork standing to the right side of the musicians who entertained the audience with a sitar bandish.

The following artists won the award: Shibli Muneer (contemporary painting), Mughees Riaz (landscape), Ali Kazim (figurative/portrait), Atif Khan (printmaking), Saba Qizalbash (drawing), Affan Baghpati (3D sculpture), Shah Abdullah Alamee (calligraphy), Irfan Ahmed Qureshi (traditional khattati), Zohreen Murtaza (art criticism), M R Javed (V M Art Gallery emerging artist, male), Rabia S Akhtar (female), Syeda Unab Sumbul (female), Akram Spaul (Art Kaam, still life), Adeel Uz Zafar (curatorial work), Humayun Memon (photography) and Waseem Ahmed (miniature).

Three lifetime achievement awards were also given on the occasion to Ahmed Khan, Mansoor Rahi and Saeed Akhtar.

In his introductory speech, Tauqeer Muhajir said there's been a big gap between the first and second iterations of the event. When the last awards were held the economic conditions were much better.

2nd Nigaah Art Awards held

'While we confront the economic situation which has also impacted the art business, there are also many positives that have happened between the two Nigaah awards. Some of our performing artists and painters have done exceedingly well on the global stage. Arooj Aftab became the first Pakistani musician to get a Grammy. Ali Sethi and Shae Gill's 'Pasoori'is one of the biggest hits globally for 2022. Ms Marvel had a grand debut. Joyland and The Legend of Maula Jatt created waves globally.

'And our artists from the art fraternity have also done extremely well, from Shazia Sikandar to Salman Toor, from Waqas to Rashid Rana, and numerous others, have created work to international acclaim and are now part of art collections around the world.

'While there has been an economic meltdown, it might also be a good idea for Pakistan's investment houses to develop a framework to launch a couple of art funds,' he said.

Discussion on 75 years of Pakistani art

Next up was a conversation between eminent artist Prof Salima Hashmi and the CEO of the Dawn Media Group, Hameed Haroon, on '75 years of Pakistani art'.

The first question that Mr Haroon put to Ms Hashmi was about the difficult time between 1947 and 2022, and that was there a unity in...