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 to develop her signature technique and visual language. Her practice extends across various media, including drawing, painting, video and installation.

A prominent artist, Quraishi’s work has been widely shown locally and internationally. More recently, she has been shortlisted as a finalist for The 2022 Sovereign Asian Art Prize and was the recipient of the ADA Art Installation Award 2021 in recognition of her project Sky Frames. 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 the International Istanbul Biennial (2019) and Karachi Biennale (2017). Her works are in the collections of both national and international collectors and 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 braille. Physically, I maintain contact with two materials: the surface and the paint. My hands perform two roles simultaneously; the right applies paint on the surface while the left removes the applied paint. A rag soaked in turpentine is used for the excess, leaving all but the faintest vestigial traces of colour. A set of hand gestures and motions repeated in different sequences for four to twelve hours at a stretch produce markings for a visual, visceral language.
​
In this simultaneous making and unmaking, adding and subtracting are profound engagements with form and the formless, absence and presence, separation and union. Through the repetitive, the meditative may be reached.

Upcoming Shows

2022
'The 2022 Sovereign Asian Art Prize Finalists Exhibition' Art Central, Hong Kong
'Lines of Inquiry' Chawkandi Art Gallery, Karachi

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   
 
2022
'Something Borrowed, Something New' Copper and Steel, Karachi
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