Mohammad Ali Talpur was born in 1976 in Hyderabad, Pakistan. He attended the National College of Arts in Lahore, where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts in 1998.

Talpur aims to create “art without content” in order to return to the original craft of drawing. In this spirit, he started producing a series of works characterized by clusters of lines made of ink, pencil or acrylic on paper. The artist found inspiration for these works in observing birds flying from the rooftop of his studio. Looking at them in motion, he traced their path in the sky with a felt tip pen on paper over and over again, almost obsessively in a meditative trance.

In the artist’s machine drawing series, which followed his meditations on the line, he based his work on the same concept, but manipulated a printing press which once was used to create school exercise books to create loose grids of lines.

Talpur completed the Khoj International Public Art Residency in Delhi in 2006, and the Vasl Artist’s Residency and exhibition in 2005, and was awarded the M.D. Taseer Scholarship at the National College of Arts in Lahore.

Talpur has exhibited his works in several solo shows in the subcontinent and internationally. These include ‘Leeka’ at Art & Public, Geneva, in 2008; at X.V.A. Gallery, Dubai, in 2008; Gallery:space, London, in 2007; and Zahoor-Ul-Akhlaque Gallery, Lahore, in 2004. Some of the group exhibitions in which his work has featured are ‘Drawn from Life’ at Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, in 2011; ‘Resemble Reassemble’ at the Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon, in 2010; ‘Fathay Jay Aassay Paassey ‘ at V.M. Art Gallery, Karachi, in 2010; ‘The Rising Tide: New Directions in Art from Pakistan 1990–2010’ at Mohatta Palace Museum, Karachi, in 2010; ‘Mashq: repetition, meditation, mediation’ and ‘Drawn from Life: Drawing Process’ at Green Cardamom, London, in 2009 and 2008 respectively; ‘Around the Miniature’, Lahore, in 2003; Zahoor-Ul- Akhlaque Gallery, Lahore, in 2000; and the Punjab Artist’s Association, Alhamra Arts Council, Lahore, in 1997.

The artist lives and works in Lahore.