Huma Mulji

Huma Mulji (born 1970) is a Pakistani contemporary artist. Her works are in the collections of the Saatchi Gallery, London and the Asia Society Museum.

Early life and education Huma Mulji was born in 1970 in Karachi, Pakistan. In 1995, she completed a BFA at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi, Pakistan, and in 2010, received an MFA from Transart Institute in Berlin, Germany.

Career From 2003 to 2015, she was an associate professor at the School of Visual Arts, Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan. In 2016, she was a fellow at the Terra Foundation for American Art. She was Visiting Artist at the Goldsmiths' College, London, UK in 2015 to 2017.

She is currently Lecturer at the University of West of England, Bristol, UK, and Lecturer, BA (Hons) Fine Art, at the Plymouth College of Art, UK. 56th Venice Biennale in Italy, in Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art in Spain, Asia Society Museum in New York, Saatchi Gallery in UK and Project 88 in Mumbai, India. Her solo exhibitions include High Rise, in Elementa Gallery, Dubai, UAE in 2009, Crystal Pallace and Other Follies in Rothas Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan in 2010, and A Country of Last Things in Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan in 2016.

Mulji's work examines the relationship between culture, context, and cognition. Drawing on the visual culture of her South Asian heritage, she explores the politics of place, addressing themes of existence and the habitual perception of one's surroundings. This intermediary state is continuously played out in Mulji's work, which incorporates sculpture, painting, photography, and installation. The city, the everyday, and the overlooked serve as primary subjects in these artworks, which are often described as deliberately awkward.

Her sculptural installation Arabian Delight (2008) refers to the aspects of economic migration, to the anticipations of the migrants and corresponding reality. It was presented at Art Dubai in 2008, but was removed after a few days to avoid a controversial topic. The removal, however, brought even more publicity to the artwork. The piece was bought by Charles Saatchi and became part of the collection of the Saatchi Gallery.

The title of her installation Ode to a Lamppost That Got Accidentally Destroyed in the Enthusiastic Widening of Canal Bank Road (2011–2017), exhibited at the Karachi Biennale 2017 (at Pioneer Book Store), During the Biennale, this work raised controversy. Mulji placed the pole so that it was difficult to navigate in the space. Aziz Sohail noted that it was Mulji's point to make a parallel to social inequality and to how the life of people is affected during the developmental projects. Hamna Zubair wrote: