Alia Bilgrami is a Pakistani-Canadian artist, curator and art writer, with a background in contemporary miniature painting and photography. She grew up in Karachi where she completed her BFA in 2007 at the Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture. In 2008 she moved to Islamabad and worked for Rohtas Gallery as Assistant Curator. That same year she was awarded a Curatorial and Research Internship at the Freer & Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. From 2009
10 she completed her MA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London where she received the Cecil Collins Memorial Award for Drawing
(2010). Bilgrami currently works as full time Curator for Khaas Gallery, Islamabad where she has been curating since 2010. Additionally, she independently curates selected projects and continues to maintain her own visual art practise. She has been part of many exhibitions in Pakistan as well as internationally for both aspects of her practise. In her studio practise, Bilgrami mostly works with contemporary miniature painting, drawing and analogue photography techniques such as photo emulsion prints, solar plate etchings and cyanotypes, often combining various labour intensive media.

Solo exhibitions include Tulipmania, Rohtas Gallery, Islamabad (2011) and Out of the Forest, Koel Gallery, Karachi (2014). Internationally, she has mostly exhibited in London, in various group shows including Concrete Mirrors, The Crypt Gallery (2012) and Rough Around the Edges, Hanmi Gallery (2013). Her first Artist’s in Residence experience was at Asilo Infantile Beatrice in Atina, Italy. The residency culminated in two exhibitions curated by Rekha Sameer at Sant’Ambrogio sul Garliano and Palazzo Cantelmo, Atina (2014). Significant achievements include being awarded the prestigious Sovereign Asian Public Vote Prize Schoeni (2015), after she was nominated for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize and selected as one of the 30 Finalists, with exhibitions at Soho 189 Art Hub and Christie’s, Hong Kong. Shortly after this, she co-curated Khaas Gallery’s booth at Art15, London’s global art fair at Olympia and also participated as an artist in 8 Graphic Triennial | 20 years of Existence Jubilee, Bitola, Macedonia and the Biennal International Papermade Art Work Exhibition in Schio, Italy (2015). Locally, she participated in Doppelgänger at Khaas Gallery, Islamabad and More Than Meets the Eye at Gandhara Art Space, Karachi.

Noteworthy projects include independently co-curating and organising Ato Nexus – an Artist’s in Residence Program with Ilona Yusuf. The residency ended with an exhibition at the Pakistan Embassy in Tokyo, Japan and Bilgrami was also one of the participating artists (2016). Later that year she co-curated Khaas Gallery’s booth featuring The Dressing Room by Humaira Abid at START Art Fair at the Saatchi Gallery, London (2016) and participated as an artist in two group exhibitions in Berlin. The following year, Bilgrami’s work was part of Botany of Desire at Koel Gallery, Karachi and a travelling exhibition, From the Scroll to the Book organised by Comsats Gallery, Islamabad at Shanghai University and Beijing International Peace Culture Foundation and Garden Museum (2017). In 2018, she independently curated a groundbreaking exhibition at the National Art Gallery (PNCA) called Sulah that included artists from Pakistan and Afghanistan and Folding Shadows at Koel Gallery, Karachi. She also independently curated Depicture at AAN Gandhara Art Space, Karachi (2019). Forthcoming projects include being selected for Imago Mundi (Pakistan) organised by White Turban at the Venice Biennale that will take place in 2019.