My Story
I am an artist and a musician currently working and residing in New York metro area. the winner of international award of visual arts ” Young international emerging Artist” Culture and solidarity “Gino de agro” My family hails from Waziristan, a war-torn border town between Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is where I get my surname. My family fled Waziristan to seek peace and stability and settled in a town of Bannu, a town in Northwestern region of Pakistan about 65Km from Wazirstan, where I grew up. My father, a physician by trade yet a gifted poet and a writer, practiced at a local regional hospital, the only healthcare facility for hundreds of miles. As a young man I spend a considerable amount of time with my father at his clinic and often witnessed first-hand the destruction and devastation that a war can bring to a population. Many Waziristani towns were abolished and leveled by the Pakistani military if not by the US drones in an effort to hunt for taliban. The Wazir population remain an internally displaced population (IDP) living in refugee camps all over Northern Pakistan as their land remain uninhibitable. The plight of IDP's and refugee population around the world is an existential challenge of our time and a cause which I relate to on a very personal level.
From an early age I had an affinity towards the arts and music. Growing up in a tribal areas with rigid customs and culture and where the guns are a way of life, I opted to pick up a paint brush and a 'Rabaab' instead of a gun. I saw art as my refuge and a way to redefine and reinvented my surroundings. I imagined beauty emerging from chaos and rebirth from death and destruction. Through my sculptures I created form, order and decipline around me. Art became a way for me to reconcile my grievences for comfort and chaos with order. I taught myself how to play a "Rabaab" and started composing music.
My father was the first one to recognize my love for the arts and encouraged me to pursue it further. His tears of joy wouldn't stop falling when I informed him of my acceptance to the National College of Arts (NCA), the most prestigious art school in Pakistan. He gave me his blessings and off I went with my Rabaab to the bustling city of Lahore, where I would spend the next few years of my life.
Coming to the NCA officially started my Art career. It gave me the much needed ammunition to ignite my soul and sharpen my creative expression. I majored in fine arts focusing on sculpture. Through my work I showed physical and emotional states of existence throughout lifespan through a series of nine Hyper-realistc sculptures called the "Inception" series. From a tender and a fragile newborn, to metamorphic changes associated with aging, i.e., changes in textures, shape and proportion and ultimately the dissolution of soul and rebirth and an ongoing repitition of this sacred cycle.
After graudation, I taught Fine Arts at Punjab University and Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design (PAFD) as an Assistant Professor. In 2013, I accepted a contract assignment I worked as an independent contractor and a consultant in directing and designing hyper-realtistic monk and buddha sculpture. The most challenging of which was a design and direction of a forty-five-meter buddha sculpture in ChangMai and Bangkok.
In 2014-2017, I returned to Lahore and created the second set of sculptures in the "Inception" series. My sculpture, a kinetic beating heart, called "The United Beat of Existence" was nominated by Pakistan-USA Alumni Network (PUAN) and exihibited at Satrang Gallery and is now a permanent archive of US Embassy in Islamabad.
In 2018, I made a trip half way around the world to realize my dream of becoming a professional artist in the Art hub of New York City, and also to make America my new home. I consider myself fortunate and thankful to be living among the best artists and in a place so akin to nurturing and fostering Art.
Moving to America has brought a new dimension to my life and to my art. As my life moves in new and bold directions I feel more confident as an artist to mix style and techniques and to artistically communicate complex topics and subject matters by using unconventional techniques. One which has been particulary immersive is what I termed as "pyroblading.' As the name suggests it combines smoke, paint and sculpting techniques. The end result shows extreme detail and depth and 3D effect on a 2D surface. The technique hasn't gone unnoticed.
In January 2019 my painting "Eruption" was asked to be be displayed at the "al Museo d'Arte Contemporanea" Museum of Contemporary Art in Troinia, Sicily, Italy. Watch the making of "Eruption" using pyroblading Here and follow the journey of this painting as it makes its way to becoming a museum piece.