Ajab Khan

Fabrics rich in color emerging from dark boiling liquid in dyer’s cauldron have been his first fascinating exposure to colors that made a strong impact on his artistic expression. A self-taught painter, Ajab Khan, was born to a working-class family which migrated to Dera Ismail Khan from India. Coloring the black and white pictures from the family album by applying thin layers of paint on them made from fabric dyeing pigments was his favorite activity during his childhood. Noticing his keen interest in colors and talent to draw, his father would buy him colored pencils to play with. The local workshops of commercial signboard painters and wall-chalking artisans served him as institutions to get familiar with the fundamentals of calligraphy and painting.