Abdullah Qureshi

Size: 42 × 54 inches / 107 x 138 cm
Medium: Enamel Paint on Canvas

Abdullah Qureshi (born 1987, Lahore) is an artist, curator, and educator whose practice spans multiple disciplines. His work draws upon abstraction and experimental forms to explore personal and collective narratives related to identity, desire, memory, and the body. Through painting, film, and participatory experiences, Qureshi engages with the emotional and political dimensions of storytelling.

Influenced by recollections of his early life, domestic spaces, and private relationships, Qureshi’s paintings often merge interior settings, abstracted terrains, and anonymized figures. His time-based and collaborative projects expand these ideas into broader reflections on history, image-making, and social transformation. Using elements of camp and performance, his films reinterpret queer mythologies and alternative histories beyond Euro-American frameworks, creating nonlinear and symbolic worlds that question representation and belonging.

His work has been presented across Asia, Europe, and North America, with exhibitions at venues such as the National Gallery of Art (Islamabad), Alhamra Art Gallery (Lahore), Rossi & Rossi (London), Berlinische Galerie (Berlin), Twelve Gates Arts (Philadelphia), and SOMArts Cultural Center (San Francisco). Alongside his studio practice, Qureshi has contributed to several educational and cultural initiatives, including collaborations with the British Council Pakistan and the National College of Arts, Lahore.

He has delivered lectures, workshops, and presentations internationally at institutions including the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague, Ateneum Art Museum (Helsinki), PRAKSIS (Oslo), Residency Unlimited (New York), the University of California, Irvine, Valand Academy (Gothenburg), and Fábrica de Arte Cubano (Havana). Qureshi has been awarded fellowships from Zurich University of the Arts (Art and International Cooperation, 2017) and the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research in Boston (2018).

Currently based in Canada, Qureshi is completing his doctoral studies at Aalto University in Finland, where he will defend his dissertation in December 2025.