Amin Rehman, We Have Not Gained, 2020, mixed media on paper. Courtesy of the artist.

Lines, Pattern, Action

September 14–December 5, 2026
An exhibition in the Blackwood Gallery, e|gallery, and four outdoor lightboxes

Artists: Faisal Anwar, Tazeen Qayyum, Amin Rehman, Emaan Shaikh, Sumaira Tazeen

Curated by Ruba Kana’an

Lines, Pattern, Action showcases artistic expressions of translocal subjectivities by five Pakistani-Canadian artists living and practicing in Ontario. The selected works by artists Faisal Anwar, Tazeen Qayyum, Amin Rehman, Emaan Shaikh, and Sumaira Tazeen reflect more than two decades of engagement with global issues and universal faultlines. Their subjects are both commonplace in their urgency and intimately personal in the artists’ own experiences. The works of these artists transcend the expression of identity politics to question the politics of collective identities—marginalized subjects, political subjectivities, knowledge systems, and structures of control.

All artists were trained at The National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, broadly considered Pakistan’s premier art school. The NCA was originally established under British colonial rule in 1875 as the Mayo School of Art. Its origins combined the Arts and Crafts movement’s artisanal approach with a colonial classification of certain South Asian castes and classes as having an innate potential for what was considered menial craftmaking. In postcolonial Pakistan, the country’s intellectuals and artists who trained and taught at NCA refused and reconfigured the colonial binaries of art/craft and nurtured a new intellectual nexus for art education and practice. While maintaining a rigorous training in art techniques, tools, and materials that is grounded in traditional South Asian art—especially in miniature painting—the NCA expanded its offerings to new areas such as graphic design, multimedia art, film, and architecture.

Lines, Pattern, Action reflects the artists’ creativity in harnessing the rich affordances of this unique postcolonial art training, privileged by its ability to operate independent of a Western art canon and embrace the freedom to examine, seek inspiration, and be in conversation with its own multiple traditions. The works demonstrate the skillful craftsmanship of the artists, rooted in research, slow processes, and traditional techniques. They speak to a contemporary experience that is here and now yet rooted elsewhere—always expressed in an idiom that is both familiar and different.

Read the full curatorial essay on the Blackwood’s website.

Faisal Anwar, Lines That No Longer Hold, 2025. UV inkjet print in LED lightbox.

Public Programs

CommonSky: Art, Ornithology, and Data
Conversation with Faisal Anwar and Joe Siegrist
Wednesday, September 23, 12–2pm
L1220, Innovation Complex, UTM
Register to attend

Breathe
Projection on Canada Malting Silos by Faisal Anwar
Friday, September 25, 8–11pm
Co-presented with OCAD University

Exhibition Opening and Artist Discussion
Reception and panel discussion with exhibiting artists and curator
Thursday, October 15, 5:30–8:30pm
Rotunda, Innovation Complex, UTM
Register to attend

quiet contemplations / urgent meditations IV
Performance by Tazeen Qayyum and Debashis Sinha
Monday, November 23, 3–4pm
Rotunda, Innovation Complex, UTM
Register to attend

For program descriptions, contributor bios, and access information, visit the Blackwood’s website.

Acknowledgements

The Blackwood gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and University of Toronto Mississauga.

Public programs are generously supported by the Shehla and Adil Giving for Arts Foundation (SAGA Foundation).

The Blackwood
University of Toronto Mississauga
3359 Mississauga Road
Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6
blackwood.gallery@utoronto.ca
(905) 828-3789

Gallery Hours: Monday–Saturday, 12–5pm
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Image Descriptions:
1. Eight translations in English, Arabic, Balochi, Turkish, Urdu, Pashto, Turkish (repeated), and Persian, of the phrase: “we have not gained anything from these wars.” Yellow, red, orange, and brown text is against a patinaed black background with a beige border.
2. White thread-like lines against a black background form a dense intricate web of waving formations that trace the intricate flocking patterns of migratory birds.