Farrukh Addnan is a highly accomplished artist recognised home and abroad. In his technically accomplished paintings, the aspect of memory plays a very important role. Addnan wanders through the ruins of his ancestral town recording in microscopic detail with pen and ink, whether on wasli or canvas, his impressions and findings as marks, dots and lines. To stand in front of Farrukh Addnan’s artworks is to be drawn into a meditative space and time. We are invited upon this frozen moment, to contemplate its perfect geometrical precision, and time stops as we do. The strong linear surface effect is achieved with a close to unreasonable commitment in terms of time and labor invested, and an almost obsessive attention to detail. There is a sense that whilst a flawless, managed abstraction has been created, perfection has been achieved. The work reflects the angst of the artist holding tightly to the present, where any moment the past might force its way back.

Addnan received his bachelor’s in visual communication design from the National College of Arts in Lahore in 2009. He completed his master’s in art & design studies from the Beaconhouse National University with the prestigious scholarship of the South Asia Foundation’s Madanjeet Singh Institute for South Asian Studies in 2014.

He is the recipient of the ADA Award, (honorable mention in the drawing category – ADA Awards 2020-2021). Farrukh Addnan has also been nominated for the prestigious Jameel Prize 6, 2021 and Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2019-2020. He was recently selected for a residency “Ecologies of Displacement” a collaborative project with a Scottish artist. (Organized by Koel Gallery, Karachi and Summerhall, Edinburgh, funded by Creative Scotland and British Council.) His work has been extensively exhibited in solo and group shows home and abroad, notably in Germany, Spain, Italy and the US. Presently he teaches drawing at the National College of Arts, Lahore and has also taught photography in the past.