To keep the flame of art burning, she has opened an art studio in Sukkur, her hometown, where she teaches artists.....
art
Mirza had an interest in the arts since her childhood. She never thought to opt it as a profession but backing from her family helped her choose the arts as her career. She graduated from Lahore College of Women and completed her Master’s degree from Punjab University. Her art trajectory has been reflecting her love for her soil. Her images depict the daily rhythm of Sindh in which she represents the life and people of Sindh. She served as the head of the Fine Art Department, Jamshoro. She exhibited in countless solo shows in Pakistan and in 1988 she also received the International Asian Shield, Watercolour from Japan.
To keep the flame of art burning, she has opened an art studio in Sukkur, her hometown, where she teaches artists.
Known as an art critic, researcher and curator, Amra Ali is based in Karachi. She has been long associated with writing for the arts for national publications as well as international art journals since 1990.
She has been the Secretary of the Pakistan section of the International Art Critics Association (AICA, Paris) from 2000-2014. To promote art in Pakistan, Ali conducted workshops for young art critics, on a national level, in affiliation with the British Council of Pakistan.
Many of her papers are presented on contemporary art and published nationally and internationally such as ‘Intersections of Contemporary Art, Anthropology and Art History in South Asia: Decoding Visual Worlds’, to name a few whereas she has also edited books like ‘Rasheed Araeen: Homecoming. Ali has curated a number of projects and shows in Pakistan. She holds a BFA from the Department of Visual Arts, University of Ottawa, Canada (1986). She was a Nieman Affiliate at Harvard University and studied drawing, art history and criticism (2002-3).
Lahore-based artist, Farazeh Syed, acquired her diploma in printmaking at the Gandhara School of Art, Islamabad. Syed was under training of a renowned painter Iqbal Hussain for 15 years which polished her skills of painting to a level that she became one of the leading painters of Pakistan. She has completed her Masters from NCA.
Her rich as well as satirical visual vocabulary addresses the being of women in a patriarchal society. Her work also provokes debates of female identity and sexuality. She has held many solo and group shows on national and international level.
Based in Karachi, Masuma Halai Khwaja is one of the well-known figures in the art world. Graduated in 1991 with a distinction from NCA, she was inclined towards embroidery and fabrics with which she beautifully weaves narratives of cultures, society and other abandoned issues in her oeuvre that leaves a thoughtful impression. Her deep observation over the daily political, social, cultural and traditional variations strongly affects her work. She has served as an instructor at numerous art institutions like NCA, University of Karachi and Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi. Having many accolades to her credit, Masuma continues to make female artists proud.
Nausheen Syed studied sculpture from NCA and to acquire Master of Fine Arts degree she went Wimbledon School of Art, London. Her work raises question about the society and its behaviour towards women. Her extraordinary prowess of exploring the violence in the society by incorporating technology into her body of work depict the narratives in different ways which has been one of the reasons of her being a renowned artist in Pakistan. She distils all her imagination and ideas into her feminine sculptures which make a strong statement of independency, claiming their individuality and celebrating their existence. Her work has been acclaimed on national and international level and she has held countless shows abroad as well as in Pakistan. Currently she teaches at the Department of Sculpture at NCA.
Specialised as a contemporary miniature artist, Sumaira Tazeen is a Canadian visual artist who has studied Fine Art from a prestigious college NCA. She received a gold medal for outstanding student and the Haji Mohammad Sharif Award for Miniature Painting. Tazeen had adopted a different language to represent her narrative. She chooses objects such as containers, boxes which have various meanings thus her work is open to interpretations. She also comments over the issues of displacement and abuse. She experiments in multiple mediums like installations, sculptures and sound art.
She is famous for her miniature gliding technique which has taken her work to the different corners of the world including London, Milan, and Amman and to famous personalities as well such as Queen Elizabeth II in 1997, Pervez Musharraf in 2006 and Queen Rania of Jordan.
Tazeen Qayyum is a Pakistani-Canadian artist who graduated in miniature from NCA in 1996. Her work debates upon the fears and terrors that are attached with identities and cultures, immigration and socio-political issues. She uses cockroaches to represent the chaos and mayhem spread across the world after 9/11. She works in a variety of mediums such as painting, sculptures, installations, drawing and performance.
Qayyum has countless groups and solo shows in her name. Apart from art practice, she also conducted miniature painting workshops and to promote artists in Pakistan she has also co-founded a gallery and resource centre, Offset Portfolio Centre in 1997.
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