The electromagnetic fields across the southern Indian Ocean just north of the Antarctic  islands are free and dynamically changing as gravity reacts with light and the earth's movement. They are called Auroras.  These aren't mirages but real refractions of light.  Mukhtar Kazi's ancestors until the generation of his grandfather were seafarers who navigated the sea atop wooden boats in directions driven by the movement of stars and constellations.

Mukhtar Kazi always layers his paints on the canvas with a translucency of blues,  grays,  ochres and  blacks to realise 'Light'.  Recently he has been using the canvas as a collaborator in creating those shades by using its capacity to absorb.  Human life should seek the light of enlightenment through reading,  inquiry,  reason and science.  The Quran gives  great importance to our role to enlighten ourselves and others as the aim for human life.  

'Noor ala Noor' or 'Light upon Light' is a concept that is divine for its metaphors of  both knowledge and mercy in Islam.   Of how enlightenment instills kindness and universal acceptance.  Travelling seas makes people accepting of the varied cultures and faiths as it creates a common ground for syncretic imaginaries.  The paintings of Mukhtar Kazi dwell in these paradigms that he himself as a Konkani Muslim from Maharashtra's Western Coast has embodied as a way of being.  Mukhtar allows you in with his solo a viewing of his experimentation with paint, canvas and light. Mukhtar is not elboarately painting light, he is just reminding you of its simplicity and asking you to watch.  

Sumesh Sharma
Sinhagad,  2025