Zaam Arif is a Pakistani-American contemporary artist residing and working in Houston, Texas. Arif's work is a reflection of an overture rich with philosophical and literary influences, over time evolving provocatively into a deep introspection of the human experience. Theories that derive from an otherwise complicated plethora of inquiries of existentialism, cinema and literature are translated into powerful visuals with Arif's seamless craft and the synergy between characters and the environment they are painted in. Time and experience have allowed Zaam Arif to build a trajectory of visual energy, where man, place, and time are constructed gradually - as if to mirror the human experience - steady and slowly unfolding into the experience.
Zaam Arif's work was exclusively featured in The New Yorker magazine in 2021, making him the youngest Pakistani artist to be published in the prestigious magazine. In the same year, his work was selected to be exhibited in the Malamegi Lab Award and was awarded the Malamegi Lab Research Grant in Italy. Arif has shown in both solo and group shows all over the world, where he has been critically acclaimed for showing new frontiers in the crossover of Painting, Literature, and Cinema.
How did you transition from studying physics to making art? Has anything from your studies left a trace in your creative practice?
The transition was very unexpected; it came from a necessity of moving back to Pakistan for a year and leaving my studies halfway. From there my love for photography and filmmaking beckoned me to do something in the arts. Slowly that turned into drawing and then finally painting in my father’s studio in Karachi. I think I was exploring the same questions in physics books that I am searching for in the arts– questions about life, time, love, memories and a reason to live. These questions remain in the back of my mind no matter what I am exploring, be it film, music or painting. I still think Math could have all the answers to this universe but for answers about this life, you must look within.
Zaam Arif, from "Lost Time" at Night Gallery
Earlier this year your exhibition Lost Time at Night Gallery was named after a phrase from Marcel Proust’s novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time), 1913. How do you think about time in your work?
Time will always be relative to our experience of it, and painting for me captures time. Film captures it at 24 or 30 frames per second whereas painting must extend time to much more than that. A painting for me must stretch time to its extreme boundaries.
Do you have any other current pieces of writing, film, or music which are inspiring your practice?
I recently watched Ran by Kurosawa, that film really stayed with me. The colours were breathtaking and to see his hand painted story boards for the movie hit even harder. They remind me of paintings that Takeshi Kitano did for his movie Hana-Bi, another brilliant film maker, comedian and painter.
How do you think about colour in building atmosphere or emotional weight in your paintings?
When I am painting, building atmosphere or emotional weight does not concern me. I paint what I am feeling in that moment, that’s why maybe my paintings change so much from where they start to when I am done with them. But it is also important to listen to what the painting is saying to you. Paintings have a way of directing towards a certain direction within themselves.
Zaam Arif, from 'Waking Dream' at Vadehra Art Gallery
There are several recurring motifs in your paintings, including scattered books or bodies of water glimpsed through windows and reflections. What do these symbolise in your practice?
I always want people to come to their own conclusions about my works, so that’s why I refrain from giving exact meanings within my paintings. When an artist defines something within their own work, it is very difficult for the viewer to break from that definition.
You’ve mentioned being raised within an art fraternity in Pakistan, what was it like growing up in this community and do you think it is reflected in your work today?
Growing up surrounded by art and the influence of my artist parents and their surrounding art fraternity is very difficult for me to spell out, but I think the thing I can say is, that I am what I am because of that. My paintings wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t have the experiences that I had growing up.
Many of the figures in your paintings, even when in pairs, seem to exist in a state of quiet solitude. Can you speak about the role of solitude in your work, and whether it reflects your own experience or is just a point of interest for you?
Whenever I hear of solitude, I think of Tarkovsky’s quote:
“I don’t know… I think I’d like to say only that they should learn to be alone and try to spend as much time as possible by themselves. I think one of the faults of young people today is that they try to come together around events that are noisy, almost aggressive at times. This desire to be together in order to not feel alone is an unfortunate symptom, in my opinion. Every person needs to learn from childhood how to be spend time with oneself. That doesn’t mean he should be lonely, but that he shouldn’t grow bored with himself because people who grow bored in their own company seem to me in danger, from a self-esteem point of view.”
I cannot speak on the figures in my paintings, but solitude for me is a very important part in my life, that’s why I choose to paint at night, when there are no noises, no distractions. Only when you are alone with yourself that you find your-self.
Your compositions with angular, dimly lit interiors, sometimes evoke a sort of surreal anxiety, for me recalling Max Ernst’s The Master’s Bedroom or Van Gogh’s The Bedroom. Are you aware of these kinds of art-historical references, or do the scenes develop more instinctively?
I absolutely love Van Gogh’s Bedroom, that painting has mesmerized me since a long time now. Van Gogh is very important for me, but when I am painting, I am not thinking of art historical paintings, they are there in my heart and in the back of my mind but never at the forefront.
I think everything I have ever seen and felt, deeply influences my work in some way and I am sure Van Gogh’s, Munch’s, Max Ernst or Picasso’s paintings play a part in that, but I cannot point to a time when that ever was the direct intention of any of my paintings. My painting is very instinctive and having experienced great paintings is the reason that I can paint instinctively. I want to create my own language, but I am also aware that I can only do that by standing on the shoulder of giants.
Your piece for the Winter Auction diverges from the typical narrative interiors, instead depicting a close-cropped, emotionally intense portrait. How do you approach your portraits in comparison to your larger works?
The Piece for the Winter auction is from a series that I have been working on for the past four years. The series titled, ‘The Strangers’ is influenced by Albert Camus novel ‘The Stranger’. The series is a collection of really close-up portraits of people on the beach. This is the smallest work within that series called “An Outsider” referencing another name for the same novel by Camus.
Do you have any projects on the horizon that you would like to share?
I am excited to be showing new work at Frieze No 9 Cork Street which opens on the 9th of October. The exhibition has paintings that I have been working on for the past year.
Visit Zaam Arif's Website
Questions by Victoria Lucas
