Glynn Vivian Museum, Swansea, UK
Nov 2018 – ONGOING

Guest Curator

Co-curating, with Katy Freer, Head of Exhibitions at Glynn Vivian, Imperial Subjects: (Post)Colonial Conversations between South Asia & Britain. The exhibition, exploring the connections between the Subcontinent and Britain, is scheduled for 2022. Glynn Vivian was the recipient of the hugely prestigious Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art Curatorial Research Grant for 2021/22, enabling it to create this post. The project is part of the museum’s drive to “decolonize” its collection.

Grosvenor Gallery, London, UK
10 Sept 2021 – 1 OCT 2021

Guest Curator

Patterns of the Past: Weaving Heritage in ‘Pakistani’ Art was a group show comprising 5 artists: Adeela Suleman, Bushra Waqas Khan, David Chalmers Alesworth, Liaqat Rasul and Ruby Chishti. The show was part of an annual collaboration between London’s Grosvenor Gallery and Karachi’s Canvas Gallery, which ran from 10 September to 1 October 2021. It brought together specially commissioned artworks (tapestries, wall hangings, fabric installations, soft sculptures and mobiles) all of which used textiles to unravel conventional notions of art, heritage, nation and identity. It is a sad truth that the most precious textiles in the Subcontinent have been produced in what are now conflict-torn regions: for instance, muslin from the Myanmar-Bengal borderlands, from which countless Rohingya refugees continue to be displaced, or Jamawar shawls from the battleground that is Kashmir. And yet, textiles have had another, kinder, history too: the fabled Silk Route allowed for syncretic exchanges between the Western world and the various Asias, even as fabulous handwoven carpets journeyed along it from Samarkand and ancient Iran. Much more recently, fibre-art and ‘weaving’ have played a vital role in re-drawing the boundaries between art and craft; used by many an artist to unravel gender biases and cultural pigeonholing. The artists in this show were invited to draw on these variegated legacies; to trace how the history of South Asian textiles is tied to politics, culture, identity – and the British Empire. This show – and the especially ‘tailored’ works within it – aimed to dismantle inter/national stereotypes about ‘Pakistani art’. It received international coverage from publications such as The Wick, ART India, Dawn, The Karachi Collective and The Aleph Review.
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E-Catalogue

BEN URI MUSEUM & GALLERY, LONDON, UK
AUG 2020 – OCT 2020

Academic Advisor 

Midnight’s Family: 70 Years of Indian Artists in Britain was a mega-group exhibition comprising 3 generations of Indian artists in the UK. Curated by Rachel Dickson and artist Shanti Panchal, I advised on the project and provided the framing text for the show. Midnight’s Family marked the launch of Ben Uri’s 3D Virtual Museum, garnering international coverage; including mentions in BBC London, The Guardian Guide, Art Daily as well as reviews and previews in publications all over the Subcontinent.

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