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Born in 1978 Quetta, Pakistan, Khadim Ali currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia and Kabul, Afghanistan. Ali was trained in classical miniature painting at the National College of Arts in Lahore and in mural painting and calligraphy in Tehran. Khadim Ali received his Master of Fine Art (MFA) from University of New South Wales in 2016. He belongs to the minority ethnic Hazara who are the inhabitants of the central part of Afghanistan, where in 2001 the colossal sixth-century Buddha statues were destroyed. The Shahnameh (Book of Kings) was read to Ali by his grandfather and its illustrations were his first lessons in art history. Ironically, its hero Rustam became appropriated by the Taliban. Rich in traditional and modern motifs of Eastern and Western art-historical references, Ali’s works tell stories about loss (of his own cultural heritage and of human values) and about how meaning shifts as words and images are twisted through ideological adoption. His work traces the history of his ethnicity and other minorities who have been subjected to the discrimination, persecution and ethnic cleansing. Ali’s intricate works depict stories of demons and angels, conquest and war through the lens of the persecuted Hazara community.

Khadim Ali has exhibited in recent solo exhibitions that include: What Now My Friend, New York (2020), Fragmented Memories, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia (2018), The Arrival, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, Australia (2016), Transitions / Evacuation, ARNDT, Singapore (2015), The Haunted Lotus, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2013) and Rustam, Rohtas2 Lahore, Pakistan (2009).

His recent group exhibitions include: Between the sun and moon Lahore Biennale, Lahore Pakistan (2020), In one drop of water, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2019), gohyang: home at the Seoul Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea (2019), Enough خلاص Khalas, University of New South Wales Galleries, Sydney, Australia, Waqt al-tagherr: Time of Change, ACE Open, Adelaide, Australia (2018), The National 2017 – New Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia (2017), NSW Visual Artist Fellowship Exhibition, Art Bank Gallery, Sydney, Australia (2017), Biennale de Lyon, Rendez-vous. Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon (2017), Mythologies of the Oppressed, Rohtas 2 Art Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan (2016) and Refugees, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney, Australia (2016), 53rd Venice Biennale (2009), Venice, Italy, in Documenta 2013 (2012), Kassel, Germany, The Asia Pacific Triennial 5, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (2006) and the presentation No Country: Contemporary Art for South East Asia at the Guggenheim, New York, USA (2013).

Ali’s work is held in numerous public collections, including: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; British Museum, London; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan; Foreign Office, Islamabad; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.