We all have our concepts about Pakistan based on what we see on television, hear on the radio and read in the papers. We might imagine it permeated by Islamic extremism or, at the very least, a suppressed country to live in. What do you imagine is happening to creativity in that environment?

"Unseen Visions: Contemporary Painting in Pakistan," on view at the East-West Center Gallery, might rattle that ideology and generate some cracks — and through them, we might get a glimpse of what kind of world Pakistani artists create in. It is a vital one.

Arjumand Faisel, who organized the exhibit, was an East-West Center degree fellow in 1988, and is now president of the Islamabad chapter of the East-West Center Association, a public-health specialist, a respected painter and a gallery owner.

"There are two Pakistans," Faisel said, "The one that CNN portrays and the one that I live in."

Pakistan, the birthplace of one of the oldest civilizations on earth, has been invaded and ruled by Aryans, Greeks, Persians, Arabs, Central Asians and the British. Each one of these cultures has brought its own rich heritage to Pakistan and merged with Pakistan's own artistic aesthetics. Add a heterogeneous population, Pakistan's independence in 1947, influence by the modern art movements in the 1950s and 1960s, political turmoil — including war with Afghanistan — and you have the stuff that fuels artistic innovation and transformation over time.

Pakistan has a thriving contemporary art scene. Artists are not afraid to express their ideas about the issues and injustices in Pakistan, the world or their spirituality. This exhibit showcases paintings illuminated by a fertile, old-vine poetic ethos and new world visions.

Faisel and Michael Schuster, curator of the East-West Gallery, selected 12 artists from Pakistan: Meher Afroz, Abrar Ahmed, Sana Arjumand, Rashid Arshed, Akram Dost, Ahmed Khan, Masood A. Khan, Ali Kazim, Mudassar Manzoor, R.M. Naeem, Ghulam Rasool and Mughees Riaz. Two works from each artist are hung in one of four sections; gender, spirituality, landscape and calligraphy.

This exhibit also brings a series of special events pertaining to Pakistan to the East-West Center.

I met up with Arjumand Faisel hours before he was due at the airport. Michael Schuster joined us for the interview.

Q. How did this exhibit come about?

Arjumand Faisel: I made a small presentation on "Contemporary Art in Pakistan" in New Delhi at the East-West Center Alumni Conference. Michael (Schuster) was present, saw it, liked it, and we began the discussion to have an exhibition.

Michael Schuster: We began formulating the exhibit, following that discussion, in November 2005. It was wonderful to work with Arjumand. He's so knowledgeable about the artwork, and the communication was good. Bill Feltz (coordinator) and I felt it was essential to show something about contemporary Pakistan that's not in the news, with all the negative exposure that we get from CNN about terrorism and atomic bombs.

Q. Did you, at any time, feel that there was government censorship of the paintings that were traveling to Hawai'i for this exhibit?

Schuster: No. We really wanted to show that contemporary Pakistani art is vital. Artists can express all kinds of complicated ideas, social, spiritual and political — the gamut. Whatever is going on is possible to express and is being expressed by artists in this time, who are very involved with Pakistani culture, referencing local Pakistani ideas and ideologies and historical references. At the same time, Pakistani artists reach out to the whole universal experience.

Q. How did you whittle it down to just 12 artists for this show?

Faisel: I formed a committee that had people from the National College of Arts and from other colleges. We decided whom to select. Initially, we divided the works into different categories — landscape, calligraphy and miniature work — then listed prominent artists among each section. We divided that into who were the best and why. The artists were unique in different ways. Out of the 60 to 75 artists we picked, we short-listed 25 artists. There was a lot of discussion. We sent images of these artists to Michael (Schuster) and asked him to short-list it even more.

Schuster: For me, it was very difficult. There were so many beautiful pieces to choose from and people to work with. And of course it's always difficult to work with the limitations of slides — textures, quality of color. Even if you have dimensions, you can't picture them because everything is equalized.

I was looking for some sort of unity. We wanted a totality of experience for the viewers that would make sense, something that was unifying. There were certain elements that were very strong and unique. The work is very representational, which is antithetical to a lot of things that have been going on in contemporary art for a long time and to what people imagine about art coming from an Islamic country. That was very powerful to me. Artists were using the image, representational images and the representation of the human figure over and over again to express social or spiritual contexts. Many of the elements had a very strong spiritual, to me seeming Sufi, undertone of universalism despite all that we hear about Islam. I think that was also very important.

Q. Were there any hurdles you had to jump to make this show happen?

Schuster: DHL. The shipping was the largest hurdle. They were supposed to deliver a painting in five days that took five weeks. However, we made all the deadlines ...

Q. Can you share a few insights about some of the paintings?

SCHUSTER: