About

My work explores the complexities, contradictions, and everyday experiences of South Asian and Muslim womanhood. Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, and now based in New York City, I draw from personal memories, cultural observations, and the social dynamics that shape women's lives. I am interested in the spaces women occupy, the roles they are expected to perform, and the ways they negotiate identity, beauty, belonging, and autonomy. My paintings move between the ordinary and the theatrical, examining moments of humor, discomfort, intimacy, and tension that often coexist within South Asian social life. Portraiture is central to my practice. I have always been fascinated by the human face and its capacity to reveal as much as it conceals. Through exaggerated expressions, heightened features, and deliberate gestures, I create subjects who confront the viewer while retaining a sense of mystery. Many of my paintings capture what feels like a fragment of a larger story, a fleeting interaction or an unresolved moment that invites the viewer to imagine the circumstances surrounding it. These narratives are often rooted in familiar cultural experiences, yet remain open to interpretation.

My approach to painting is equally driven by a fascination with the material itself. Working primarily in oil and mixed media, I experiment with texture, layering, and the sculptural possibilities of paint. I have long been drawn to thick surfaces and unconventional methods of building dimension, including incorporating dried paint back into my work. Saturated colors, exaggerated features, ornamental details, and references to the visual language of Bollywood allow me to heighten the drama of otherwise ordinary subjects. I embrace excess and theatricality as ways of exploring the relationship between outward appearance and interior experience. Throughout my practice, I return to questions surrounding femininity, beauty, cultural expectations, and social obligation. I am particularly interested in how South Asian women present themselves and are perceived by others, both within their own communities and through Western ideas of identity and beauty. My paintings are neither straightforward celebrations nor critiques of these experiences, but attempts to capture their contradictions. Through portraiture, humor, and psychological narrative, I seek to create space for women to be seen in all their complexity, beyond the roles and expectations assigned to them.My work explores the complexities, contradictions, and everyday experiences of South Asian and Muslim womanhood. Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, and now based in New York City, I draw from personal memories, cultural observations, and the social dynamics that shape women's lives. I am interested in the spaces women occupy, the roles they are expected to perform, and the ways they negotiate identity, beauty, belonging, and autonomy. My paintings move between the ordinary and the theatrical, examining moments of humor, discomfort, intimacy, and tension that often coexist within South Asian social life.