Humaira Abid is known for her bold, symbolically rich and precisely realized wood sculptures and miniature paintings. Her work demonstrates a fearless approach to tackling cultural norms, gender roles and relationships, often with an ironic edge. Personal life becomes a metaphor for current events and everyday objects resonate with meanings of love, loss and resistance. Through her work, Abid pushes the boundaries acceptable for women within Pakistan, while challenging stereotypes and preconceptions about Pakistani culture as her work is exhibited on the global stage.

‘My goal is to raise awareness through my work and discuss issues that are often overlooked.’

Abid received her BFA in Sculpture and a double minor in Miniature Painting from National College of Arts, Lahore in 2000. Abid’s masterful works have been exhibited in prestigious galleries and museums in Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Mauritius, Nepal, Kenya, Dubai, Bolivia, German, Russia, UK, and the United States. She has been published in books, catalogues, and newspapers internationally and has received multiple awards and grants including the Artist Trust Fellowship in 2015. She was finalist for the Artist Trust Innovator Award in 2017. Her work has been reviewed by the Seattle Times, the Stranger, KUOW Public Radio, the Seattle Weekly, and the Huffington Post. She has appeared in the Stranger’s Arts & Performances Quarterly magazine, Sculptural Pursuit, American Art Collector magazine and the in-flight magazine of AIR INDIA. The KCTS9 branch of PBS produced a documentary on Abid’s work which was nominated for a NW Emmy Award. After Abid’s highly regarded “RED” solo exhibition at ArtXchange Gallery in 2011, her work was seen in the Bellevue Arts Museum’s 2014 Biennial “Knock on Wood” and the Tacoma Art Museum’s 2016 survey exhibition “NW Art Now.”

Abid’s first solo museum exhibition, “Searching for Home,” which exhibits at Bellevue Arts Museum in 2017/2018, is a site-specific installation featuring personal narratives, stories, and portraits of refugees in the Pacific Northwest, and socio-cultural themes of immigration, women, and families. Concurrent with her exhibition at BAM, Abid debuts two thematic solo exhibitions of sculpture and installations that explore relationships, the female body and shame, at Twelve Gates Foundation in Philadelphia (Jan 2018) and ArtXchange Gallery in Seattle (Feb/March 2018).

Download Humaira Abid’s Artist Resume.

 

---

[one_half]

Selected Press

Mahogany Message – Lisa Edge, Real Change News, 2017

In Great Detail – Amanda Manitach, City Arts, 2017

Exhibition Review – Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times, 2016

Visualizing Taboo – Lisa Pollman, Art Radar, 2015

With Knives and Chisels… – Laila Kazmi, PBS Newshour, 2014

The Lineup (interview) – Jen Graves, The Stranger A&P, 2013

Why is Miscarriage Still One of Motherhood’s Greatest Taboos? – Clare Winterton, The Huffpost Blog, 2012

Unspeakable Leaking (exhibition review) – Jen Graves, The Stranger, 2011

Seattle sculptor Humaira Abid blends dazzling craft, potent content in ‘Red’ (exhibition review) – Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times, 2011

Humaira Abid at ArtXchange Gallery (exhibition review) – Gary Faign, Artdish and KUOW radio, 2011

Dual Readings (exhibition review) – Salwat Ali, Dawn (Pakistan), 2011

Carving from a Domesticated Space – Shireen Khan, Art Nukta, 2009

Flights of Fantasy – Newsline, 2006

 

Exhibition Catalogs

The Dressing Room. 2016, Khaas Gallery.

RED 2011, ArtXchange Gallery.

 

[/one_half]
[one_half_last]

Multimedia

 

 

[/one_half_last]