Ramzan Shad

The Journey of a
Professional Artist
Biography
Achievements

Commissioned Works
Paintings in
Australia
Born in a small town in Pakistan, Ramzan
Shad belong from a middle-class family,
raised by hard-working parents. After
completing high school, Ramzan Shad had a
passion for arts and he well founded his
skills by then that he had been bestowed
with some God gifted skills, He found the
art of turning his talent and skills on a
canvas or a chart paper very smoothly and
easily. Starting his career as an Arts teacher
in one of the well-known schools in Asia,

Beaconhouse School System, and building

up his family and nurturing for them had
been a long life for the artist. He is having a
couple of his children living in Australia and
he himself living with the rest of his family
back in Pakistan. The journey seems to have
just started for Ramzan Shad, when his
paintings and arts works ended up in
Australia through his daughter and family
friends.

Achievements
A fine arts Artist is often faced with the
question from where and how to start.
Ramzan Shad had a decades working on his
arts work and building up his dreams to
represent himself on a wider scale and
among the international community of
Artist. Being part of the wider community is
what the Artist dreams for. Ramzan Shad
wanted to make a professional trial of his
works internationally. As in the article
National Fine Arts Title Registry launches
Professional Artist Program; (2005) the
author mentions how artist and film director

John Cherry founded NFATR for more than

a years time and spotted the need for artists
to be able to document it and track their
works they create during their career.
From last few decades, Ramzan Shad has
participated in a lot of exhibitions. Initially,
his enthusiasm was shown in 1982 when he
participated in National Art Exhibition in
Islamabad P.N.C.A. This was from where he
drove his inspiration and aspiration from
other artists as well, who shared their ideas,
art work and skills all together under one
roof.

Figure 1. Landscape, Oil on Canvas Ref # 02639, 24 x 30 in. Artchowk Gallery

The following are some of his major participation and shows at different art galleries in Pakistan.

1983
prize.
1986
1993
1994-1995
1996
1999
2002
2003
2005
2008
2009

Participated in All Pakistan Art Exhibition & awarded special

Participated in group show Artists from Baluchistan.

Solo Show at The Gallery Quetta
Participated in various group shows.
Participated in National Exhibition.
Group Show IDARA-E-SAQAFAT PAKISTAN
Four Men Show at Jahanzeb Art Gallery Karachi.
Group show at PEARL (Quetta)
Group show at IDARA-E-SAQAFAT QUETTA
International Group Show At JAM SHORO University.
Group Show at Cultural Center, Quetta Pakistan

One of the previous exhibitions Ramzan

Shad participated was a three men show
including Ahmed Khan and Moazzam Ali at
Pakistan Fine Arts Gallery in Karachi,
Pakistan. Ramzan Shad had put his oil work
in this exhibition which attracted attention of
other artist, provided that he had a unique
touch and a way to paint his paintings.
These exhibitions and the centers for these
Artists comprises all of the artists' gathering
spaces that offer conversations, networking,
building professional relationships,
mentoring, shared workspace and tools,

readings, and displaying their art works take

place (Markusen and Johnson, 2006)
(Markusen 2006, p. 1932). Markusen (2006,
p. 1932) draws that Centers involve
dedicated space that is available for ongoing
visits, where membership and access to
many events is available to all comers, and
where other artistic functions are available
on a more selective, often openly
competitive, basis.
As mentioned above about Ramzan Shads
major participation at different art galleries
sometimes on his own and mostly at time as

group shows, was the place where he

learned about boundary less opportunities.
Ramzan Shad had sent his oil and water
colour paintings to overseas to gift his
friends and family friends (sometimes

making paintings on their special and

specific requests) on auspicious occasions.
Not just hat his paintings are now distributed
in the cities of Pakistan but also
internationally from Europe to Australia.

Figure 2. Water Color on Paper, Code: PT: 1576. 11" x 15

Commissioned Works
Ramzan Shad
had an
extensive
history of
commissioned
works as an
Artist. He has
not just made
private
commissioned
paintings but
on a number of
occasions made some outstanding and
unique relief paintings, water color and oil
paintings for different organizations as well.
There are numerous to mention but the relief
art works for National Bank of Pakistan and
Pakistan Army have been a stand out. It is
important to identify the way Ramzan Shad
works which has created his own unique
identity, not just in relief art works but also
the way he does his oil paintings and water
colors.
We often see the way Fine Arts Artists adopt
a psychological way of creating their own
style. A lot of examples from different
Artists can be quoted but it would be
important to notice the way Alastair Sooke
has pointed out Lucian Freud way of
working on his paintings. Sooke points out
the maturity from his art work. Sooke (2012,
p. 39) draws His mature style is
unforgettable. Today his reputation rests
upon his unflinching nudes, craggy fleshmonsters seemingly sculpted out of
encrusted paint. Even the pigment he used
for pasty bodies, known as Cremnitz white,
is unusually stiff and indestructible, since it

is saturated with heavy lead carbonate. It

can be noted how a critic draws the attention
of his audience by bringing ones attention
about an artist touches on his paintings. On
another occasion Sooke (2012, p. 39)
Freud's nudes are far from idealized. There
is nothing flattering about them: no nip-andtuck here, no graceful elision of blemishes
or wobbly bits there.

Figure 3. The Royal Collection

Lucian Freud.
2001

Figure 4. Portrait
of Queen Elizabeth
Ramzan Shad 2011

An artists art work will either be

appreciated or will be completely
misunderstood by an audience hence,
attracting critics. Similarly, same is for
Ramzan Shad who has been no exception.
There were people around himself who
always appreciated his art works and
encouraged him and while others failed to
comply the sense of his art. Kaleem Khan,
Director of Fine Arts Quetta, Ramzan is
somebody who not only tries to look at
things or scenes from novel and unusual
angles, but employs a very different and

distinct palette, something very special, and

something which is quite unlike to the
customary taste of that local art
lovers.(Pakistan Art Review 2011). Among
various reasons of his success and taste in

arts, his style has been observed as unique in

the eyes of senior artists, from whom
Ramzan Shad learned throughout his
professional career.

Ramzan Shad art works mostly comprises of

Oil and Water colors. It must be pointed out
that he possesses a smooth grip on his
fingers when working with pencil colors as
well. He has mostly used art galleries for his
commissioned art work or where he puts his
brilliant paintings for sale. Art Galleries in
Karachi, Pakistan is a popular one stop for
artists, art lovers, socializing, events and
commercial purposes. Art Galleries
recognizes an artist works and loves to
develop professional relationships with
them. Without the artists art work, the art
galleries are not nothing but a mere like an
empty office ready to be furnished. A gallery
owner in California puts grounds of his
business on the mutual beneficial between
the artist-dealer relationships (Frankel 1999,
p. 20). From a business point of view for the

Art Galleries they maintain a wonderful

contact and communication for the success
of their art galleries and arts in particular.
Frankel (1999, 1999, p. 20) draws Redfern
on his antique paintings, "I have one of the
largest inventories in the state," he says. "I
don't take on second-tier painters, even
though I could sell their work. I prefer to
spend more money and buy the best I can
versus buying for the sake of quantity.
Quality always holds out, even in a slow
market. The best paintings will always sell
and the average paintings will not." This
shows that only quality is sold always,
which truly reflects the wonderful paintings
of Ramzan Shad. The following are some of
the amazing and master pieces of his
commissioned art works in Pakistan:

Relief in Fiber Glass for NBP (National Bank of Pakistan) 40 x 5

Relief in Fiber Glass for PAF
Monumental sculptures for Staff College.
24 Portraits of QUAID-E-AZAM for Ministers
Block Quetta.
Oil Paintings for Governor House Quetta
Paintings for School of tactics & Infantry Quetta
Paintings for Quetta Club & S.S.G.C Company
Paintings for 41 DIV Quetta
Paintings for Serena Hotel Quetta
Illustrations for The Book Group Karachi &
NGOs
Water Colors for BSS calendar 2000.
Paintings for ICI Deluxe Calendar 2004
Cultural Paintings for Bolan House Islamabad

Paintings for Frontier Core.

Relief in fiber glass for 41-DIV Quetta. Size 250sq fts
Private Collections at various Art nationally & abroad
Paintings for Staff College, Quetta (2009)
Portraits for 41 Division, Quetta
Watercolors paintings for Pakistan Army, Sindh

Figure 5. Relief Art Work, NBP,

Pakistan, Ramzan Shad

 Paintings in Australia

The question arises how come an

artists paintings from Pakistan
ended up or can end up in
Australia. The above columns
strongly stress the art works
exhibited in Pakistan and in the art
galleries but how history was
created and a new chapter has been
opened for Ramzan Shads art work
in Australia. Now that the paintings
made it to Australia in face of
requested demand of his daughter
in Shepparton and a family friend
in Sydney, Ramzan Shad has
started thinking about coming to
Australia for a visiting purpose and
sees how he can contribute his
skills, art and passion in the diverse
multi-cultural Australian
community. On one occasion he
had to even send his art work and
the frames of his paintings to his
daughter through post. History was
certainly created even in unwanted
way but this is just the beginning of
a remarkable landmark.
It will be important if Ramzan
Shad will be considering for a
longer stay than a typical visit to
Australia and also visit his children
here. He has been a curious artist
and his hunger for exploring new
style of art will definitely prompt
him to participate in the local

cultural and art festivals. Bennett

(2010, p. 117) draws a remarkable
quote It is well known that a
pilgrimage overseas can be crucial
to the career development of
specialist creative artists. All too
often, however, the pilgrimage
becomes a permanent migration.
Significantly, the loss of this
creative talent is not limited to the
national level. It remains in the
interest of the artist to showcase his
skills and artistic works in Australia
and at the same remain in a subdue
connection and constant
communication with his former
stakeholders in Pakistan. Bennett
(2010, p. 117) points out
Creativity, whether that of artists
or of those whose creativity is
embedded within other areas of the
economy, is often cited as crucially
important to the economy (Anheier
& Isar 2008; Glaeser 2003).

Figure 6. On a request of his daughter,

Ramzan Shad painted this painting in
2013. The picture was taken from an art
book(presently unknown about the
original artist).

References:

National Fine Arts Title Registry launches Professional Artist Program May, 2005,
vol.69 (754), p.10 (1)

Markusen, A 2006, Urban development and the politics of a creative class:

Evidence from a study of artists, vol. 38, pp. 1932.

Art Scene Galleries, Ramzan Shad, image, viewed 12 October 2015,

http://www.artscenegalleries.com/painting-detail.asp?Page=1&Artist=Ramzan Shad.

Artchowk, Ramzan Shad, images, viewed 13 October 2015,

<http://www.artchowk.com/Views/gallery/show_bigger.php?id=2639>.

Art Scene Galleries, Ramzan Shad, image, viewed 13 October 2015,

<http://www.artscenegalleries.com/painting-detail.asp?Artist=Ramzan%20Shad>.

Sooke, A 2012, Astonish, disturb, seduce, convince: Lucian Freud's mature works can
be merciless - but his early paintings, now on show at the National Portrait Gallery,
show a more delicate side to this most autobiographical of artists vol. 141 no. 5092,
pp.39(3).

Shamim Akhter, Pakistan Art Review 2011, A New Art Gallery, viewed 17 October
2015, http://www.pakistanartreview.net/9th_issue/9th_page_1.html.

2001, Freud royal portrait divides critics, image, BBC NEWS, viewed 17 October
2015, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1723071.stm.

Ramzan Shad 2011, Portraits, Facebook, 27 October, viewed 17 October 2015,

https://www.facebook.com/106187122743943/photos/a.106201356075853.11311.1061
87122743943/295723280456992/?type=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Ffbcdn-sphotos-ba.akamaihd.net%2Fhphotos-ak-xlf1%2Fv%2Ft1.09%2F299612_295723280456992_470987345_n.jpg%3Foh
%3Daed4048e8e8ab69bd497539402cdc144%26oe%3D568AF471%26__gda__
%3D1455645984_4864ca225de16d796f6cacd64b293866&size=700%2C920&fbid=29
5723280456992.

Frankel, Karen 1999, How an Art Dealer Works (Art dealer Ray Redfern handles
antique paintings, and the works of three living artists), vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 168.

Ramzan Shad 2010, Cultural relief of Balochistan by Ramzan Shad and Mousavi,
Facebook 23 March, viewed 17 October 2015, <
https://www.facebook.com/106187122743943/photos/a.106196349409687.11307.1061
87122743943/106196552743000/?type=3&theater>.

Bennett, Dawn 2010, Creative Migration: a Western Australian case study of creative
artists, vol. 41, no. 1, pp.117-128

true

A=Primo_Local&I= https://beacon01.

Figure 6, Photo taken on 17 October 2015 at Shepparton.

Background watermark prints taken from Ramzan Shads painting from Facebook
(Ramzan Shad) with his permission.