Biography

Qudsia Rahim is the Director of Lahore Biennale, and the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Lahore Biennale Foundation, a non-profit aimed at engaging arts as a medium of dialogue for community building. She previously worked as an associate professor and curator at the Zahoor Ul Akhlaq Gallery at her alma-mater, National College of Arts. As a curator, she has organised artist residency exchange programmes and research-driven exhibitions that have showcased works by local and international artists.

Rahim is also the founder of the Research Cell which is a part of the Lahore Biennale Foundation’s outreach effort to encourage cross-sectoral collaboration on the domestic and international front, and strengthen art philanthropy and scholarly research in the visual and contemporary art fields. She initiated Afforestation Lahore, a scalable, nation-wide project that brings together stakeholders from the government and civil sector to combat loss of tree cover and address other urgent environmental challenges.

She has been involved in independent curatorial projects, such as Stet (2014) and Everything Is Embedded In History (2015), both contemporary art exhibitions aimed at looking into modes of information dissemination through the arts.

Her publications include Lahore Biennale 02 Guidebook (2020); Lahore Biennale 02 Catalogue (2020); Lahore Biennale 01 Guidebook (2016); Lahore Biennale 01 Catalogue (2016); Lahore Biennale 01 Reader (2016); Everything is Embedded in History (2015); and My East is Your West (the Viewer, View and the Viewed) (2015).

She received a full scholarship for an MFA at Alfred University, New York (1997) and the Honors Award at the National College of Arts, Lahore (1993).

Rahim earned a BFA from the National College of Arts, Lahore (1993) and an MFA from Alfred University, New York (1999). Born in 1971, Lahore, she currently lives and works in Lahore.

SAF participation:
March Meeting 2021

Related Content