Ayessha Quraishi (b.1970) lives and works 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 employs gestural mark-making. And she often integrates drawing, painting, installation and digital media to explore themes of impermanence, absence and presence, separation and union.

Quraishi is an accomplished artist, a finalist for The 2022 Sovereign Asian Art Prize and the recipient of The 2021 ADA Art Installation Award. Recent exhibitions include The 2022 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Art Central, Hong Kong (2022); Between Light, Koel Gallery, Karachi (2020); International Istanbul Biennial Istanbul (2019); and the Karachi Biennale (KB17), Karachi (2017). Her work is published in Between Light - Ayessha Quraishi Works:1985-2020 (2020). 

​Quraishi's work has been widely shown locally and internationally and is in prominent private collections worldwide and the permanent collections of HBL and the Rangoonwala Foundation UK.

Upcoming Show

'Lines of Inquiry' Chawkandi Art Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan - August 2022

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
​'2022 Sovereign Asian Art Prize' Art Central, Hong Kong
'Summerscape' Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
'Well, Come Back Home' Koel Gallery and Full Circle Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
'Something Borrowed, Something New' Copper and Steel, Karachi, Pakistan
2021
'Khat-o-Kitabat' O'Art Space, Lahore, and 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

Art Fairs

2022
The 2022 Sovereign Asian Art Prize Finalist Exhibition, Art Central Hong Kong

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

Awards and Funds

2022
​Grant Awardee of British Council Go Digital: Pakistan - Wales | PK UK 2022 New Perspectives 
2022
Finalist for the 2022 Sovereign Asian Art Prize
2021 
​ADA Awards 2020-2021, Sky Frames Video Installation


Publications

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