Ayessha Quraishi is a self-taught painter based in Karachi. Having received her initial art training from Karachi-based educator Nayyar Jamil, she has been working for over three decades on the development of her signature technique and visual language. Her practice extends across various media including drawing, painting, sculpture, video and installation.

A prominent artist, Quraishi’s work has been widely shown, both locally and internationally. More recently, she received the ADA Award 2021 in recognition of her project Sky Frames, a double-channel video and site-specific installation. In 2020, Koel Gallery presented Quraishi's mid-career retrospective Between Light in Karachi, featuring works spanning thirty-five years (1985-2020). Accompanying the mid-career retrospective, a comprehensive monograph was published in February 2020.

​Quraishi has also participated in 'Karachi Ki Khoj: [Re]defining the Metropolis' IPAF (2020); International Istanbul Biennial (2019) and Karachi Biennial (2017). Her works are in the collections of both national and International collectors as well as the Rangoonwala Foundation UK.

Artist Statement

​​I work in a way that has been natural to me since I was a child.
​
Visually, the process is similar to that of braille. Physically, I maintain contact at all times with two materials: the surface and paint. My hands perform two roles simultaneously; the right applies paint on the surface while the left removes the applied paint. Often I use a rag soaked in turpentine for the excess, leaving all but the faintest vestigial traces of colour. A set of hand gestures and motions repeated in different sequences during four to twelve hours at a stretch, produce markings for a visual, visceral language.
​
From this surface of fact, between paint applied to suggest form and then removed to hint at the formless, the aesthetic pulse of the work is detected. In this simultaneous making and unmaking, adding and subtracting are profound engagements with line, colour, texture and explorations of memory, of absence and presence, of separation and union, of dualities at the threshold of being and becoming. Through the repetitive, the meditative may be reached.

Resume

Solo Exhibitions

​2020             
'Between Light' Mid-Career Retrospective, Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
2018             
'All That Is, Is Held' Canvas Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
​2016             
'Open Presence' Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
2013             
'Liminal' Khaas Art Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan
'Continuous / Present' Rothas II, Lahore, Pakistan
2012             
'Letters From An Underground Vein Read' Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
1998             
Indus Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
1997             
The Art Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan
1995             
Gallery Ardeco, Avignon, France
​NCA Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan

Group Exhibitions   
 
2021
'Khat-o-Kitabat' O'Art Space, Lahore, Pakistan
'Khat-o-Kitabat' Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
2020
IPAF '20 'Karachi Ki Khoj: [Re]defining the Metropolis' NED University City Campus, Karachi, Pakistan
2017            
'Recorded Time' Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
​2016            
‘Awaken Our Legacy’ Standard Chartered Bank, WTC Branch, Karachi, Pakistan
2015            
‘Birwa’ Showdown 2015, Sadequain Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
2014             
'Mostra Internazionale di Pittura', Matera, Italy
'Summer Scape 2014' Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
2013             
'October Passage' Canakkale, Turkey
'Summer Scape 2013' Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
'Intimacy' Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
2012            
'Abstract Art In Contemporary Russia' Moscow, Russia
'Universal Sapience' Goethe Institute, Freiburg, Germany
2011              
La Galleria Pall Mall, London, United Kingdom
2003
'Laal - The Passion of Zahoor Ul Akhlaq' Art Gallery of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
2001              
'Takhti Project' Sadequain Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
2000              
Alliance Francaise, Karachi, Pakistan
1999              
Alliance Francaise, Karachi, Pakistan
1998              
Zenini Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
1996              
Gallery Ardeco Avignon, France
1995              
Gallery Sadequain, Karachi, Pakistan
Indus Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
PNCA Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan
1991              
Shakir Ali Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan
1990              
Shakir Ali Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan
1989              
VM Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan

Performance      
 
2013            
'Riwhyti' One Night Stand, Amin Gulgee Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
2012            
Scroll 98ft x 42in, Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
 
Residencies
 
2017            
'Recorded Time' Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan.
2013            
'Hic - 2' Workshop, Turgutreis / Bodrum, Turkey
2011            
Winter Academy, Fayoum, Egypt
2010            
International Painting Symposium, Luxor, Egypt
1996            
Association Saint-Henri, France
 
Biennales

2019             
International Istanbul Biennial, Turkey
2017              
Karachi Biennale, Pakistan
2013              
Bodrum Biennial, Turkey
2011              
Biennial Izmir, Turkey

Publication

2020             
​Monograph Between Light . Ayessha Quraishi - Works: 1985-2020 

Award

2021 
​ADA Awards 2020-2021, Sky Frames Video Installation
https://youtu.be/K1CnPmc0rR0
https://youtu.be/-0gL_ASuf8g