Ayesha Jatoi

Ayesha Jatoi was born in Islamabad, Pakistan. She trained as an artist specialising in Miniature painting at the National College of the Arts in Lahore graduating with degrees Bachelor of Fine Arts (2005) and Master of Arts in Visual Art (2007). She also holds the degree Bachelor in English Literature from Punjab University (2001).
Ayesha’s practice primarily explores the traditional manuscript’s symbiotic relationship between the image and text and the spatial division of these “illuminated pages”. In her work, text all together often frees itself from the image. While being immersed in local ancient aesthetics of iconography, she simultaneously questions the relevance of traditional modes of constructing images today; resulting in a practice, which takes on hybrid forms.

Her work has been exhibited widely in Pakistan as well as internationally. Her recent solo shows at Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid are Tomorrow (2016) and More Silence (2013), New Works, Grey Noise, Dubai (2011), and Mirror, Mirror, Rohtas II Lahore, Pakistan (2010). Ayesha’s recent accomplishments at group exhibitions are Fabric(ated) Fractures, Samdani Art Foundation and Alserkal Avenue, Concrete, Dubai (2019), Bearing Points, Dhaka Art Summit (2018), the inaugural 01, Lahore Biennale (2018), Promises to Keep, Apexart, New York (2017), Why Not Ask Again? Arguments, Counter-arguments and Stories, Shanghai Biennale (2016), The Importance of Staying quiet, Yallay Gallery, Hong Kong (2014), Echoes: Islamic art and Contemporary Artists, Nelson Atkins Museum, USA (2013), Vac.u.um, Grey Noise, Duabi (2012), Items of Dual Use, WIP: Konsthall, Stockholm (2011), and Off the Wall, Twelve Gates Gallery, Philadelphia, USA (2010).

For Tonight No Poetry Will Serve Ayesha offers a three-part series titled Black Grid (I-III). In these spartan works, once again, Jatoi has relinquished the figurative and the ornamental in traditional miniature painting. By this act of excavating the image, Ayesha exposes the gird that underscores the political dynamics at the Mughal court. The barely perceptible plan like drawings allude to the schematic order of courtly painting in service of power.

Ayesha Jatoi lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan.