A name that hardly needs any more recognition in concern with Miniature Art of Pakistan. An artist whose scales are small but scopes are certainly very big. Syed A .Irfan is undoubtedly a modern master and a true identity of Pakistan.
Syed A Irfan is a self-taught artist. He was born on 26th May, 1985 in Karachi. He developed the passion of miniature painting, when he visited with his family at Lahore Museum in 1997. There he saw miniature paintings and started trying miniature art with the help of miniature art books and the internet.
At the age of 17, he for the very first time showed his art piece to the owner of Zenaini Art Gallery, Ms. Saira. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She was really impressed by his work and supported him and included him in the group exhibition in the year 2003 which was his first exhibition in Zenaini Art Gallery with other senior miniaturists.
Irfan has arranged many group and solo exhibitions in different countries of the world like Pakistan, USA, Dubai, Turkey, Canada, London, Saudi Arab and India, etc. He has done three solo and above 50 group exhibitions in different countries. Mughal Traditional Miniature has actually become his identity. Furthermore, he has also done Orientalism and Contemporary style miniature work.
Seeing his great talent he’d been awarded by PTV the Best Performance Award in 2007. He won a Special Prize in Sadequain Award Exhibition in 2006, and in 2001 he got first prize in All Degree College Art Exhibition.
His family is really very supporting and his parents are so proud of him. His work has been displayed permanently in some of the countries worldwide. List is below with years:
o 2007 Golf Club, Dubai.
o 2007 Efroze Chemicals Industries Pvt. Ltd. Karachi, Pakistan..
o 2008 Pakistan Embassy in Delhi, India.
o 2014 Habib Group Karachi, Pakistan.
o 2016 History Museum Bursa, Turkey.
o 2016 South City Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan.
o 2019 US Embassy, Karachi, Pakistan.
o 2019 Coca Cola Head Office, Dubai.
o 2020 Abraj ul Mansi Hotel, Dubai.
Syed A. Irfan has truly revolutionized miniature art and has succeeded in creating the most authentic fusion of Miniature Art and Calligraphy Art. He has taken a bold step and entered a phase where ‘isms’ take birth, where artists dare enter in a whole lifetime. I personally feel that artists like Syed Abdul Irfan are not born in centuries and hope that the greatness of his personality which has now started to erupt on the surface paper is recorded in time as a golden chapter in itself.