The New Cadence II exhibition, featuring 14 emerging artists, is opening today, May 1 at Gallery 6 in the federal capital.

Curated by Dr Arjumand Faisel, this exhibition is the second edition of a programme that traces the artistic journeys of the participants of the National Biennial Arjumand Painting Award 2025, beyond the competition itself.

As Dr Faisel stated in the preview, “A cadence is not a beginning, it is what a voice finds after moving through uncertainty. The exhibition asks what happens when 14 such voices, sharing a single point of departure, are given space to develop on their own terms.”

The works on view resist easy classification as they span oil, acrylic, watercolour, pen and ink, impasto, Neo-miniature and mixed media. Their subjects range from the domestic and the devotional to the social and the ecological. What unites them is not a shared aesthetic but a shared seriousness, with each artist bringing a distinct practice and perspective.

Among the exhibiting artists, Aafia Ali Shah, a recipient of the three-way First Prize at the Arjumand Painting Award 2025, works at the intersection of Islamic spirituality and metaphysics, using light and transparency to render the fine line between divine love and longing. Swarim Abid Hassan, also a First Prize recipient, layers oil paint over oxidised silver leaf to explore displacement, fragility, and quiet resistance in an era of shifting borders. Sabahat Nisar and Buland Iqbal, both Merit Prize recipients, bring portraits and figures that are as psychologically searching as they are technically accomplished. Nisar with faceless crowds that speak to modern alienation, Iqbal with intensely personal figurative work rooted in vulnerability and lived experience.