22/08/2026
VM Art Gallery is pleased to present Reclamation, a solo exhibition by Shargeel Zafar. The exhibition will open on Saturday, August 29, 2026, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm, and will continue until Saturday, September 26, 2026, with gallery hours from 11 am to 7 pm, Monday to Saturday.
Informed by his background in Humanistic Counselling, Shargeel Zafar’s practice explores the raw, camouflaged territory of human emotion. By treating mark-making as an intuitive process of unearthing, he brings to light the emotional landscapes that exist beneath our everyday defences.
Releasing calculated control, Zafar’s process relies on spontaneity and a personal, coded visual language. The non-representational marks in his works emerge unfiltered in real time, functioning as a physical conduit to what lies within, bypassing the conscious censorship of vulnerability and emotional weight.
The resulting surfaces that come from visceral gesture, kinetic energy, and layered texture are not narrative illustrations; rather, they are archives of emotion and energy, capturing the moment a suppressed emotion breaks through the mask and reclaims its true form.
About the Artist:
Shargeel Zafar (b. 1981, Lahore, Pakistan) is a contemporary visual artist whose practice explores the masked, suppressed, and camouflaged dimensions of human emotion. An alumnus of the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore (2002), Zafar’s conceptual framework is built upon a dual foundation: a multi-decade studio practice alongside training in Humanistic Counselling and psychodynamics. Zafar currently lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan.
