Aisha Khalid

Aisha Khalid (born 1972 in Faisalabad, Pakistan) is a female contemporary visual artist, working with miniature painting, textiles, video and site specific installations in architectural spaces.

Khalid is one of a generation of artists from Pakistan who have transformed the tradition of miniature painting into an internationally celebrated form of contemporary art. In recent years, Khalid’s practice has extended to significantly larger paintings, murals and installations. She is a member of what has come to be called the Pakistani 'neo-miniature' school.

Biography

Khalid graduated from the National College of Arts, Lahore in 1993 and completed her post-graduate degree in Fine Art from Rijksakademie, Amsterdam in 2003. Khalid was schooled in classical miniature painting She has described how the reaction from audiences in Amsterdam to her miniatures differed compared to reactions in Pakistan: My miniatures were considered beautiful and exotic but beyond that the viewers could not read anything significant in them. They would ask me, is it about religion, ethnicity or typical oriental traditions? It was surprising to discover the difference in perception, in Pakistan my miniature was labeled as unconventional and modern while western audiences considered them archaic.

Themes Many of Khalid's works deal with the theme of gender. Her work has been described as having a 'feminine sensibility', coming partly from references to traditionally feminine crafts such as textiles and needlework.

Books and Articles

Book: Aisha Khalid: The Divine is in the Detail (artist monograph, catalog), Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai, 2013 Book: Aisha Khalid: Larger than Life (artist monograph, catalog), Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, Manchester, 2012 Book: Aisha Khalid: Pattern to Follow (artist monograph, catalog), Gandhara-art, Hong Kong, 2010 Book: Aisha Khalid: Name, Class, Subject (artist book, artist monograph) Raking Leaves, Colombo, 2009 Book: Portraits & Vortexes: Aisha Khalid (artist monograph, catalog), Gandhara-art, Hong Kong, 2007 Book: Aisha Khalid: Tales Carried by the Breath (artist monograph, catalog), Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2006 Book: Aisha Khalid 2001-2002 (artist monograph), 2002 Book: The Eye Still Seeks: Pakistani Contemporary Art (anthology) Penguin Books India, 2015 Book: Colour and Line: The Naqvi Collection (catalog) 2015 Book: Art and Polemic in Pakistan: Cultural Politics and Tradition in Contemporary Miniature Painting (monograph) Tauris Academic Studies, London, 2010 Book: Journeys of the Spirit: Pakistan Art in the New Millennium (monograph) FOMMA, Karachi, 2008 Book: Memory, Metaphor, Mutations: Contemporary Art of India and Pakistan (monograph) Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2007 Book: Vasl 2005-2006 (anthology) Vasl International Artists’ Workshop, Karachi, 2006 Book: Asian Art Newspaper (Vol. 8, Issue 3; Jan 2005) (magazine), Asian Art Newspaper, London, 2005 Book: Art Tomorrow (monograph) Marc Parent/Terrail, Paris, 2002 Book: Unveiling the Visible: Lives and Works of Women Artists of Pakistan (monograph), Sang-e-Meel Publication, Lahore, 2001 Article: "Reinventing Tradition" by Rachel Duffell, Kee Magazine, 2010 Article: "Reading Through the Lense of the Political: Contemporary Art in Pakistan", Asia Art Archive, Sep 2009 Article: Pakistan's Contemporary Painting Workshop, HK, Quintessentially: Insider, 2007