Wardha Shabbir

Wardha Shabbir(°1987, Pakistan) lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan. She graduated from the National College of Arts (Lahore) in 2010 with a BFA. Shabbir specializes in Indian and Persian miniature painting – a traditional and highly stylized discipline of the Pakistani visual arts. Following her graduation, she has exhibited widely in Pakistan and in galleries and art fairs in Switzerland, Dubai, India and Istanbul. Strongly convinced that a visual artist should not limit him/herself with regards to medium or technique, Shabbir aims at an expansion of her work beyond the frames of a miniature painting and has done installations, sculptures and videos in an attempt to diversify her expression.

The exploration of a dark and insidious imagery underlies all of Shabbir’s work. Experiences within her own environment have enabled her to acknowledge laws of dystopia, cruelty, violence and power that prevail at the most microscopic of levels and in our own social strata. In each of her works, a transformation is taking place but a transformation that is unnatural and brought about by subjugation; carnivorous acts that result in hybrid creations. The imagery serves as a metaphor for the ever evolving state of man, his susceptibility to elemental (physical and metaphysical) changes, his inner turmoil and his struggle with his carnal or animalistic nature.

Shabbir’s technique involves meticulous attention to detail, no matter what the medium. She builds her closely inhabited worlds layer by layer and the fantastic and bewitching splendor of what she creates is a metaphor for nuances that are simultaneously seductive, poisonous and secretive.

Shabbir has received many honours and scholarships during her academic years, including an award for Best Young Artist from Alhamra Art Gallery (Lahore).