Khadim Ali

Khadim Ali belongs to the Hazara tribe from Afghanistan. His family was forced to flee their home in Hazarajat during the nineteenth century, settling in Quetta, Pakistan, where he was born in 1978. The subject matter of Ali’s work may appear to be symbolic but it is born and bred in the conflict zones in South, southwest and central Asia. Perpetual migrations accompanied by loss and trauma contribute to the potency of his images. The reference to Hamzanama, the demons rising up to wrestle, locked in violent combat, may be recreating the epics he heard as a child, but they also refer to contemporary battles among the powerful. Offered a distinguished talent visa by the Australian Government, Khadim Ali moved to Sydney in 2010. The move offered him greater mobility, and the opportunity to develop work incorporating other art forms, such as rug making. He had learnt the craft as a young man, when many Afghan refugees were making carpets to earn their living during the Afghan war.

Khadim Ali’s current body of work reflects his many concerns and demonstrates a deft way of combining mediums and concepts. The artist’s deepening anxieties about events in the region he still calls ‘home’, both Pakistan and Afghanistan, reflect his responsibility about his role as an artist.

Khadim Ali earned a BFA at the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan (2003) where he studied traditional miniature painting and earned an MFA at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales (2012). In 2012, Ali presented five paintings at Documenta 13, including one at the quinquennial’s first presentation in Kabul.

His recent participations include ‘between the sun and the moon’, Lahore Biennale 02, Lahore Biennale Foundation, Pakistan (2019); In one drop of water, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2019); Australia. LATITUDE 28’s booth at India Art Fair, New Delhi (2019); Antipodean Stories, Padiglione D’Arte Contemporanea Milano, Milan; gohyang: Home, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea; Continental Shift: Contemporary Art and South Asia, Bunjil Place, Melbourne; Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, UAE, 2018; Babur Ki Gai at LATITUDE 28, New Delhi (2018) and Dissensus at LATITUDE 28, New Delhi (2017). His solo exhibitions include Forlorn Foe at LATITUDE 28, New Delhi (2016); Transition/Evacuation at ARNDT, Singapore (2015); Transitions/Evacuations at Milani Gallery, Brisbane, Australia (2014); The Haunted Lotus at Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2014); The Haunted Lotus at Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre, Hong Kong and Milani Gallery, Brisbane, Australia (2013); Rustam at Rohtas2, Lahore, Pakistan (2009); Rustam at Green Cardamom, London, UK (2007); among others. He completed artist residencies in  Japan through the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (2006) and Arts Initiative Tokyo (2007). His works are in collections around that world, including Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, British Museum, London, UK, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan, Foreign Office, Islamabad, Pakistan, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.