My art explores what it means to create a space for oneself in the world; it encompasses themes of migration, displacement, belonging, and life rebuilt.
Artist Statement
My works explore themes of identity, migration, displacement, belonging, rebuilding life, and what it means to create a space for oneself in the world. It draws from my own experiences of trauma and reconstruction, from my cross-cultural, fragmented identities as an immigrant from Pakistan, as a South Asian, as an American, as a woman, and as a single mother, and is sensitive to the continually shifting political landscape of ex/inclusion.
However, outside the contexts of cultures and places, transcending boundaries and categorizations, there is a space where time stands still, and one is in the rhythm of creation. These are the moments when I feel most free and connected with all creation, and when I’ve found something larger than myself to join as an integral part. Imbuing this freedom in my work, I investigate cosmic interconnectedness through common patterns in the human body, the spirit, and the cosmos. I create spaces that can serve as sanctuaries and retreats from the
anxieties and upheavals of life, sites to experience wonderment, meditation, and peace. My work is about renewal.
Artist Bio
Sarah Ahmad’s artwork has been featured in group and solo exhibitions in galleries and cultural centers throughout the U.S. and internationally, including at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Sharjah Art Museum in the United Arab Emirates. Public art projects include: the Nashville International Airport and the Regional One Hospital in Memphis. Her work is currently on display at the 1 x 1 Art Gallery in Dubai. Ahmad was recently interviewed with Krystle Brewer by KWGS about her work in the Concept exhibition (2020) curated by Heather Pesanti, Chief Curator of Contemporary Austin. Ahmad has received various awards and residencies, for example through the New York Center for Photographic Art; Vermont Studio Center; Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles; and School of Visual Arts, New York. She was awarded the Tulsa Artist Fellowship in 2019 and 2020 and received the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition Grant in 2019.
Ahmad earned an MFA from the Memphis College of Art, MA Education from Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, and BA Fine Arts from the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan. She currently teaches at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.
Groundless I & II
Floating Meditations
Fractured Cosmos Installation Views
Fractured Cosmos I
Quilt Pattern of Identity
Axis Mundi
Fractured Cosmos II
Fractured Cosmos IV
Jaali Installations
Quilt Pattern of Identity
Cosmic Identity Installation
Fractured Cosmos III
Fractured Cosmos V
Kelp Explosion
