Biography
Zahra Malkani’s research-based practice spans multiple media, including text, video and the web. She explores the politics of development, infrastructure and militarism in Pakistan through the lens of dissident ecological knowledges and traditions of environmental resistance.
She is a co-founder (with Shahana Rajani) of Karachi LaJamia (2015–present), an experimental project exploring new radical pedagogies in connection with ongoing struggles in Karachi.
Malkani’s solo and collaborative work has been presented in exhibitions at the Uppsala Art Museum, Sweden (2020); Living Arts Museum, Reykjavik (2022), SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin (2022); 5th International Mardin Bienali (2022); Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai (2019); and Gandhara Art Gallery, Karachi (2016), among others.
Malkani has received a number of grants, including the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies Exhibition Grant, Chicago (2017) and the Junctions 21 Research Grant from PACT Zollverein (2021). She is currently a fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (2022).
She holds a BA in Studio Art from Bard College, New York (2009) and an MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths University of London (2013).
Malkani was born in 1986 in Karachi, where she continues to live and work.