Ayessha Quraishi (b. 1970, Karachi, Pakistan) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Karachi. With a career spanning over three decades, she works across painting, sculpture, installation, and digital media. Trained under the mentorship of renowned educator Nayyar Jamil, Quraishi has developed a distinctive visual language centred on gestural mark-making. Her work explores themes of impermanence, memory, and the fluidity of time, often inviting viewers to reflect on the transient nature of existence.
Quraishi’s work has been exhibited extensively, both locally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today at the National Museum of Qatar (2024) and Temporary Homes Cast Temporary Shadows at Koel Gallery, Karachi (2024). In 2023, she co-directed and produced the short documentary NAYYAR: An Art Story, a project supported by Patakha Pictures, and was a grantee of the British Council’s Go Digital PKUK New Perspectives initiative.
Over the course of her career, Quraishi has received numerous accolades, including being a finalist for the 2022 Sovereign Asian Art Prize and the recipient of the ADA Award in 2021. Her mid-career retrospective, Between Light: Ayessha Quraishi Works 1985-2020, was accompanied by a monograph published in 2020.
Quraishi’s work is represented in private collections across Europe, the USA, and Asia, as well as in the permanent collections of prominent institutions such as HBL and the Rangoonwala Foundation, UK. With a career that continues to evolve, Quraishi remains a significant voice in contemporary art, reflecting on the intricate intersections of time, memory, and materiality.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

​2024
'Temporary Homes Cast Temporary Shadows' Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
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 
 
2024
'MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today' National Museum of Qatar, Qatar
'Anonymous Exhibition' Sovereign Art Foundation, Art Central, Hong Kong
2023
'Flow' Mission Gallery, Swansea, Wales
2022
'Sculptor/Sculpture' COMO Museum, Lahore, Pakistan 
'Lines of Inquiry' Chawkandi Art Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan 
​'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 Art Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan

BIENNALES

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

AWARDS | NOMINATIONS

2023
Grantee | Patakha Pictures - Stories From Southern Pakistan
2022
​Grantee | British Council Go Digital: Pakistan - Wales | PK UK 2022 New Perspectives 
2022
Finalist | The 2022 Sovereign Asian Art Prize
2021 
​Recipient | ADA Awards 2020-2021, Sky Frames Video Installation

ART FAIRS

2024
'Anonymous Exhibition' Sovereign Art Foundation, Art Central, Hong Kong
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

PUBLICATIONS

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

@ Ayessha Quraishi 2024