BIO
Saba Khan (b. 1982) completed her BFA from National College of Arts (2005), with a Distinction and MFA from Boston University, (2010), on Fulbright Scholarship.
Residencies attended include: Civitella Ranieri Foundation, UNESCO Aschberg Bursary, Italy; SEHER, Jaisalmer, India; Vermont Studio Center, USA; Indus Valley School, Karachi, Pakistan; 11th Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course, South Korea. She was a juror for UNESCO Aschberg Bursary. Solo shows: Canvas Art Gallery, Karachi; Rohtas 2, Taseer Gallery, Lahore. Group shows: Monitor 4, SAVAC, Toronto; Kara Film Festival, Karachi; Inter-national Art Festival, Kathmandu; Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai; Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Thai-land; Affordable Art Fair, New York; India Art Fair; Aicon Gallery, New York. Shortlisted for The Future Generation Art Prize, Victor Pinchuk Foundation. Published in n.paradoxa International Feminist Art Journal, Tran-Asia; The Eye Still Seeks by Salima Hashmi.
She lives in Lahore and teaches at the National College of Arts and founded Murree Museum Artists’ Residency, Murree, an artist-led initiative to support artists/writers, in 2014.
Saba Khan (b. 1982) completed her BFA from National College of Arts (2005), with a Distinction and MFA from Boston University, (2010), on Fulbright Scholarship. Residencies attended include: Civitella Ranieri Foundation, UNESCO Aschberg Bursary, Italy; SEHER, Jaisalmer, India; Vermont Studio Center, USA; Indus Valley School, Karachi, Pakistan; 11th Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course, South Korea. She was a juror for UNESCO Aschberg Bursary. Solo shows: Canvas Art Gallery, Karachi; Rohtas 2, Taseer Gallery, Lahore. Group shows: Monitor 4, SAVAC, Toronto; Kara Film Festival, Karachi; Inter-national Art Festival, Kathmandu; Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai; Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Thai-land; Affordable Art Fair, New York; India Art Fair; Aicon Gallery, New York. Shortlisted for The Future Generation Art Prize, Victor Pinchuk Foundation. Published in n.paradoxa International Feminist Art Journal, Tran-Asia; The Eye Still Seeks by Salima Hashmi.
She lives in Lahore and teaches at the National College of Arts and founded Murree Museum Artists’ Residency, Murree, an artist-led initiative to support artists/writers, in 2014.
Khan’s work is pumped with humour and satire; it looks at the class divides through layers of local aes-thetics. Glitter, paint and crystals are used as tropes to comment on the emerging affluent-class, along with the ‘bad-tastes’ exhibited through religious ceremonies, homes and the bazaar.
The works also make acerbic commentary on political and social conditions with inside-jokes and symbols while not preaching on a particular stance.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The female body becomes territorialized during war, civic unrest, in the public space and in the work-space; territories traditionally marked as the male domain. While we women step outside, fric-tion/resistance between the genders prevails. Where women’s bodies are violated, damaged and en-croached. The works look at silenced stories, silenced harassment and silenced witnessing that are fearfully not exchanged, becoming coded messages to save face, a cry for help and also to uncover dusted problems. While in conversation and recording my grand-aunt’s Partition experiences, she disclosed harrowing tales that she had silenced herself from for 70 years, where the woman’s body also becomes collateral damage and source of pleasure during communal riots.
The works also make acerbic commentary on political and social conditions with inside-jokes and symbols while not preaching on a particular stance.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The female body becomes territorialized during war, civic unrest, in the public space and in the work-space; territories traditionally marked as the male domain. While we women step outside, fric-tion/resistance between the genders prevails. Where women’s bodies are violated, damaged and en-croached. The works look at silenced stories, silenced harassment and silenced witnessing that are fearfully not exchanged, becoming coded messages to save face, a cry for help and also to uncover dusted problems. While in conversation and recording my grand-aunt’s Partition experiences, she disclosed harrowing tales that she had silenced herself from for 70 years, where the woman’s body also becomes collateral damage and source of pleasure during communal riots.
