Mahwish Chishty

Initially trained as a miniature painter from the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan, Mahwish Chishty has aggressively combined new media and conceptual work with her traditional practice. Chishty became interested in military drones after her visit to Pakistan in 2011. By camouflaging modern war machines with folk imagery, Chishty is shedding light on the complexity of acculturation, politics and power.

Ms. Chishty has exhibited her work nationally and internationally at venues like University of Technology (UTS Gallery) Sydney, Australia; Boghossian Foundation– Villa Empain. Brussels; Utah Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MOCADA), Brooklyn, NY; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI and Gandhara Art Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan among others. Chishty is showing her work in a solo exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London through March 19, 2017.

In 2015, Ms. Chishty was awarded residencies at Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL; and Vermont Studio Center, Vermont, NY. Chishty also has works in public and private collections including the Foreign office Islamabad, Pakistan; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka Shi, Japan and has recently added Imperial War Museum, London, UK to this list. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Kent State University, OH.

Photograph credit: Rachel Suzanne Smith