Artist Statement

My inspiration comes from our shifting world landscape, and current events. I live in the moment, and what I read is expressed in paint. A newspaper headline, and the photos accompanying it, is reason enough for me to pick up my brush. What for me is a source of distress, I know is a life changing event for those who are the subject of the story. I feel the need to record it. I focus on the connectedness and interdependence of human beings and nature, with figures on canvas overlapping, expressing a range of human emotions, joy and despair, conflict and harmony. I use oils, gouache, charcoal and graphite, collages with snippets of newsprints and fragments of photos. My choice of color, line and brush stroke all convey a sense of movement and restless energy. Mass migration, global warming, racial conflicts and feminist issues have all been the subject of my paintings.

My recent body of work, ekphrastic in nature, draws its inspiration from the poetry of my mother Ada Jafarey 1924-2015 who was a distinguished poet of Pakistan, a feminist and a bold innovator of new forms of Urdu verse. I used her early poems which focus on her personal struggles to free herself from cultural bonds of society. My canvases capture her joyous vision and vivid images of the natural world. As my mother matured her work became more contemplative and her poems focused on the tribulations of marginalized and vulnerable people of the Pakistani society. My human forms and gestures express some of the rhythm and cadence of Ada’s poetry. My work invokes a world beyond painting, a fractured mirror of the world, where figures are blurred, but the essence of their story unequivocally clear.

My hope is that my work evokes not only the beauty and fragility of life but also the struggles and great desire for a better future for humanity.

Sabiha Iqbal’s Website