Biography
Saira Ansari is a researcher and writer who focuses on South Asian art history and publishing.
Ansari has written essays for Everything we do is music (Drawing Room and Cornerhouse Publications, 2017); Rupak, Lala Rukh’s commission for documenta 14 (Grey Noise, 2017); Syntax Freezone: Anthology of Essays on Language and Accent (THE STATE and Maraya Art Centre, 2015); PIX: The Pakistan Issue (2015) and Sohbet – journal of contemporary arts & culture, Vol. 2 (2011). She has also contributed to other international publications, including ArtAsiaPacific, The Rio Times, Canvas, Harper’s Bazaar Art Arabia, Khaleej Times, Folio, ArtNow Pakistan and Herald.
Ansari’s most recent research work includes the paper Temporal Exchanges: East and West Pakistan Exhibition Programs, 1947-1971, presented at the symposium Displays of Internationalism, hosted by the Dhaka Art Summit (2018). She was also the recipient of the Lahore Biennale Foundation Research Fellowship (2016), granted in conjunction with Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong, to develop a digital archive on Pakistani modernist Zubeida Agha.
She currently works in research and publications at Sharjah Art Foundation (2017 – present) and is a contributing editor for the South Asian literary journal Papercuts. Previously, she was Director of Communications at The Third Line, Dubai. Her curatorial projects include The importance of staying quiet, Yallay Gallery, Hong Kong (2014), a collaborative project exhibiting six decades of minimal art from Pakistan.
Ansari holds a BFA (2004) and an MA (Hons) in Visual Arts (2010) from the National College of Arts, Lahore. She was born in 1982 in São Paulo, Brazil and is currently based in Sharjah.
