WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU SEE
Imran Mir was a pioneering Pakistani artist and designer who challenged conventions through bold minimalism and experimental color. After studying at CIAC Karachi and Ontario College of Art and Design, he returned to Pakistan in 1978 with a modernist approach that established him as the country's premiere design guru.
His artistic practice, organized into twelve theoretical Papers on Modern Art, has been exhibited internationally at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, National Museum of Qatar, Grosvenor Gallery London, and Mohatta Palace Museum Karachi, alongside galleries in the USA, Netherlands, India, and Sri Lanka. His revolutionary commercial work created iconic Pakistani brands like MCB, Dawn News, and Shan Masala.
At 36th São Paulo Biennale
Imran Mir's pioneering work continues to reach new global audiences with his selection for the prestigious 36th São Paulo Biennale, "Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice."
His geometric abstractions from the "Seventh Paper on Modern Art" (1987) embody the exhibition's exploration of alternative pathways and inner discovery, joining 120 international artists from September 2025 to January 2026 in reimagining humanity through artistic practice and authentic self-expression.
When curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung placed Pakistani artist Imran Mir alongside Mozambican-Italian painter Bertina Lopes at the 2025 São Paulo Biennial, the pairing revealed profound parallels in postcolonial modernism. Both transformed geometric abstraction into vehicles for cultural resistance, synthesizing local traditions with international artistic languages to assert identity through exile and displacement.