KARACHI: In the first act of Shakespeare`s play Julius Caesar, Cassius tells Brutus that he has misunderstood him keeping his thoughts to himself, and asks whether he can visualise himself in Cassius`s eyes. Brutus replies, `No... for the eye sees not itself/But by reflection, by some other things.` This is an important point: what is the limit of human eyes for seeing things, visible as well as invisible.

A group show titled Beyond the Veil,which concluded recently at the Canvas Art Gallery, attempted to look at things beyond what`s seeable.

The four participating artists Hooria Khan, Maisam Hussain, Salar Marri and Vania Mazharhave, in their own unique styles done a nice job to unearth the reali-ties behind general perceptions the way they have discovered them thorough their art. And all four have, subject-wise, focused on issues that don`t overlap, yet the exhibition comes across as tied together with a common contextual thread. This is praiseworthy.

What are the four creative persons` concerns and how do they express them? In a nutshell, they are: human beings and their relationship with power; the role of memories in our lives; the confluence of the physical and the emotional; and art practice shaped by a grandparent. Isn`t that intriguing! It becomes all the more exciting when the viewer gets a chance to have a look at the artworks produced out of these interesting topics. They are made in a variety of media (gouache, handmade paper, oil pigments on collected CD case, ink and paper mounted on canvas and graphite and gunpowder onArchie`s paper etc) in equally diverse styles.

Artworks such as `Poor Sparrow` by Hooria Khan, `The Coffee Machine` by Vania Mazhar, `The End of December` by Salar Marri and `Rocket Launched Fired on Wall` by Maisam Hussain have tremendous aesthetic pull, and at the same time carry the depth which is essential for the viewer to hear what`s being said and not said in a painting; and see what`s drawn and not drawn in a frame.