The Imran Mir Art Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of the fourth cycle of the Imran Mir Art Prize, Noormah Jamal and Haider Ali Naqvi. This year we received our highest number of applications so far, making it a particularly competitive year. At the end, the jury decided to jointly award the prize for this cycle and both the artists will have an opportunity for a solo exhibition in 2020 in Karachi.
Noormah Jamal is an artist based between Lahore and Peshawar. A graduate from the National College of Arts (2016) her work deploys painting and sculpture as a means to explore her Pashtun heritage which has been long been marginalized and stereotyped in oral and written histories. Jamal is particularly interested in challenging these depictions and combining diverse influences as a means to explore the complexity of her community through the lens of gender, history, culture and contemporary evolutions. Jamal has been part of various exhibitions in Pakistan well as in China, Switzerland and Dubai.
Haider Ali Naqvi is an artist based in Karachi. A graduate from the National College of Arts (2015), Naqvi meticulously examines the rapidly changing contours of the built environment, particularly Karachi, through detailed drawings and archival interventions. His current project examines the disruptions caused to long-rooted communities in the city through development, migration and environmental change. Currently a faculty member in the Fine Arts Department of Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Naqvi has also exhibited widely in Pakistan and is the 2019 recipient of the Gasworks International Artists’ Residency.
The jury for the 2019 award was Natasha Ginwala, Murtaza Vali and Dr. Gemma Sharpe. Aziz Sohail served as the curatorial advisor.