In Conversation: Nusra Latif Qureshi and Simryn Gill at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Hear artists Nusra Latif Qureshi and Simryn Gill speak about their artistic processes and the influence of place and history in their work on the occasion of Qureshi’s first major solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Birds in Far Pavilions.
Birds in Far Pavilions traces the Pakistan-born and Melbourne-based artist Qureshi’s 30-year career and includes her intriguing and allegorical paintings alongside collage, photography and installation. Living between Sydney and Malaysia, Gill is an internationally exhibiting artist who works with writing, drawing, photography, printmaking, books and publishing, among other methods.
This conversation is facilitated by choreographer and performer Raghav Handa and takes place within the exhibition Birds in Far Pavilions.
Please note this a free event, bookings are not required.
In Conversation: Nusra Latif Qureshi and Simryn Gill Wednesday 9th April, 17:30 (30 minutes duration) Art Gallery of New South Wales Naala Nura Building, Lower Level 2
To celebrate her first major survey show at an Australian institution, artist and author Cherine Fahd sat down with Nusra Latif Qureshi at her exhibition Birds in Far Pavilions at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Discussing depictions of women, the self and broader themes of identity in her work, the interview explores the “tradition-interrupting” show through a deep dive into the artist’s methodologies, conceptual rationale and historical approach.
Read: Nusra Latif Qureshi interviewed in Liminal Magazine
On the occasion of her survey exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, artist Nusra Latif Qureshi was interviewed by Liminal Magazine as a part of their 5 Questions series.
Expanding on the genesis of her show Birds in Far Pavilions, the role and burden of art history in her work and her materially extensive research process, the interview provides generous insight into the inner workings of Qureshi’s approach to painting and exhibition making.
Liminal Magazine, “5 Questions with Nusra Latif Qureshi,” 6 November 2024.
Exhibition Catalogue, Nusra Latif Qureshi: Birds in Far Pavilions
The exhibition catalogue Nusra Latif Qureshi: Birds in Far Pavilions (2024) is now available to preorder in anticipation of Qureshi’s survey show opening 9 November at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
Publishing on the occasion of the artist’s first major solo exhibition in Australia, the book traces Qureshi’s 30-year career, from her early paintings in Lahore, in which she began to reimagine traditional forms of representation, to their zenith beyond the page and into 3D sculpture with a new commissioned installation.
Richly illustrated with over 100 works and historic archival imagery/photography, the publication includes insightful accompanying essays by curator Matt Cox, Art Gallery of New South Wales director Michael Brand, academic Sugata Ray, arts writer Julie Ewington, curator Esa Epstein, and philosopher and psychoanalyst Robyn Adler.
Nusra Latif Qureshi: Birds in Far Pavillions Edited by Matt Cox Essays by Michael Brand, Julie Ewington, Sugata Ray, Esa Epstein and Robyn Adler Paperback 272 pages 27.5 x 19 cm
John Meade, Nusra Latif Qureshi and Rosslynd Piggott in ‘Hair Pieces’ at Heide Museum of Modern Art
John Meade’s sculpture Self Portrait as Mary Magdalene (2003-2009) will be featured alongside Nusra Latif Qureshi’s painting Medusa’s Respite Room (2017, on loan from the Art Gallery of Western Australia) and Rosslynd Piggott’s Unknown Woman – From China to Brixton and Elsewhere in the new group exhibition Hair Pieces.
Curated by Melissa Keys, the exhibition at Heide explores the evocative and complex significance of hair in contemporary culture through a selection of recent Australian and international works of art. The show will further examine the myriad ways in which artists utilise hair to investigate and conjure generative and even magical possibilities encompassing growth, empowerment and transformation.
Hair Pieces Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen 4 May – 6 October 2024
Nusra Latif Qureshi and Elizabeth Gower at Montsalvat
The forthcoming exhibition Local Remix: Still Life will feature significant still life works from the Nillumbik Shire Art Collection at Montsalvat Barn Gallery. Elizabeth Gower’s Cycles (2015) series from the Nillumbik Shire Art Collection will be on show, in addition to a newly commissioned installation by Nillumbik artist Nusra Latif Qureshi.
Complementing the exhibition, Nusra Latif Qureshi will present free workshops at Montsalvat, wherein children and adults will be able to produce their own still life artworks in response to the exhibition’s offerings. Qureshi was awarded the Nillumbik Local Prize for Contemporary Art in 2019.
Local Remix: Still Life Montsalvat Barn Gallery, Eltham 3 May – 23 June 2024
Nusra Latif Qureshi at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
We are thrilled to announce that Nusra Latif Qureshi will be the subject of a forthcoming solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) later this year. This marks the first major solo exhibition of the artist’s work in an Australian institution, tracing Qureshi’s 30-year career.
Known for her intricately composed miniature paintings that draw simultaneously on historical and contemporary references, the artist’s experimentational practice parses out the ambivalence of tradition through a comprehensive methodology that extends to collage and photography.
The exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales will be accompanied by a comprehensive publication, featuring essays by local and international writers that explore the significance of the artist’s practice within contemporary Australian art.
Nusra Latif Qureshi Art Gallery of New South Wales 9 November 2024 – 15 June 2025
Nusra Latif Qureshi will take part in the Beyond the Page Conference at the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes on the occasion of the artist’s inclusion in the landmark group exhibition currently on view at the museum, Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain, 1600 to Now.
Artists, art historians and authors will gather for a day-long interdisciplinary discussion of the entangled histories of Britain and South Asia, their impact on the evolution of the miniature painting tradition and its revival as an aesthetic and critical force in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Nusra Latif Qureshi Beyond the Page Conference MK Gallery (Milton Keynes, UK) 19 January 2024 10:00 – 17:00 GMT
Please note this event is ticketed and has a limited capacity for in-person attendance. There will be an online version of the conference which will be live-streamed throughout the day (booking required).
Nusra Latif Qureshi, ‘Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain, 1600 to Now’, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK
Nusra Latif Qureshi’s digital photomontage DID YOU COME HERE TO FIND HISTORY? is included in the group exhibition Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain, 1600 to Now at the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes, UK. This monumental show explores how the traditions of South Asian miniature painting have been reclaimed and reinvented by modern and contemporary artists, taken forward beyond the pages of illuminated manuscripts to experimental forms that include installations, sculpture, and film.
Featuring work by artists from different generations working in dialogue with the miniature tradition, the exhibition presents contemporary works alongside examples of miniature painting dating as far back as the mid-16th century, many of which have been drawn from major collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum and the British Museum. This landmark exhibition showcases South Asian miniature painting to spark novel and meaningful connections across epochs through a rich array of multidisciplinary works.
Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain, 1600 to Now MK Gallery 7 October 2023–28 January 2024
Hear Nusra Latif Qureshi speak about her Sharjah Biennial 15 presentation, a selection of mixed media works—four of which were commissioned by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art—that explores critical displays of power and its incumbent historical misrepresentations.
Latif Qureshi’s works are on view at the Calligraphy Square in Sharjah from 7 February to 11 June 2023.
Hear Nusra Latif Qureshi speak about her practice for Art Forum, held at Federation Hall, Melbourne on May 11 at 12:15pm.
Art Forum is the Victorian College of the Arts’ series of weekly talks by leading artists and curators. Providing a rich insight into their work and its relationship with the world, each guest speaker shares the themes, processes and ideas that drive their practice.
Nusra Latif Qureshi announced as a finalist in the 2023 Paul Selzer Prize
Congratulations to Nusra Latif Qureshi who is a finalist in the 2023 Paul Selzer Exhibition and Prize alongside Kay Abude, Trent Crawford and Lisa Waup.
The Paul Selzer Exhibition honours the memory of artist and entrepreneur Paul Selzer and is made possible thanks to the generosity of the Selzer family. The fellowship funds new commissions by contemporary artists who are alumni of the Victorian College of the Arts. As part of the exhibition, a prize of $25,000 will be awarded to one of the four finalists.
The works selected will be exhibited at the Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, Melbourne from 30 June – 22 July 2023.
Nusra Latif Qureshi presents five works at Sharjah Biennial 15
Nusra Latif Qureshi presents five works at Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ These key works from Qureshi’s oeuvre include a series of installations that draw on key colonial imagery, engage with the reverence of weaponry, and critique the museological convention of collecting and ownership. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Qureshi’s practice is characterised by meticulous layering, overlapping fragments, erasure, and juxtaposition of visual material. Through such interventions, Qureshi investigates little-known histories of colonial eras to reveal complex stereotypes, which are in turn rearranged to construct new narratives. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ SB15 runs from 7 February to 11 June 2023.
Nusra Latif Qureshi’s collaborative work with Anna Farago ‘Woven into the Fold’ features in ‘SHE of Mind and Body’ at the Walker Street Gallery and Arts Centre, Dandenong until 31 March 2023.
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Challenging and exploring historical views of women, SHE of mind and body depicts body image, women’s empowerment, mental and emotional health. It reclaims traditional perceptions of textiles and celebrates art by and for women.
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This year’s artists are Caroline Phillips (work pictured at front), Dans Bain, Anna Farago, Neroli Henderson, Georgia MacGuire, Chaco Kato, Vonda Keji, Nusra Qureshi, Ema Shin and Kate V M Sylvester.
Nusra Latif Qureshi at Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present
7 February – 11 June 2023
Conceived by the late Okwui Enwezor and curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah Biennial 15 (SB15), titled Thinking Historically in the Present, reflects on Enwezor’s visionary work, which transformed contemporary art and established an ambitious intellectual project that has influenced the evolution of institutions and biennials around the world. Bringing together more than 160 artists from over 70 countries, SB15 will take place in 16 venues across the emirate of Sharjah from 7 February – 11 June 2023. Qureshi’s artworks, along with other participating artists, will offer unique perspectives that interconnect regions, histories, and practices.
You can view the work of Nusra Latif Qureshi in ‘The Cost of Living’ at the Art Gallery of Western Australia alongside Anne Wallace, Pat Brassington, Peter Cooley, Richard Giblett, Catherine Opie, Robert Dickerson and Ronnie Van Hout. ‘The Cost of Living’ explores how understandings and misunderstandings of value shape art and everyday life. It looks at what and how we place value and how that value impacts the way we relate to each other physically, emotionally, and economically. ‘The Cost of Living’ The Art Gallery of Western Australia 22 Oct 2022 – 29 Jan 2023 Image: Nusra Latif Qureshi, ‘DARK MONTHS-I’, 2020, Acrylic, ink and gouache on illustration board, 24.5 x 19.5cm.
Nusra Latif Qureshi will show at the Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present. SB15 will take place in 16 venues across The Emirate of Sharjah.
‘The Land I See Is Not Elsewhere’ by Nusra Latif Qureshi is a multifaceted installation that questions the histories and legacies of representation of the land in Australia, as much as it pays tribute to the local environment. The work reflects on our relationship to the natural world and references the history of Australian landscape painting, with a specific nod to SAM’s large holdings of watercolour landscapes by Albert Namatjira and the extended Hermannsburg School. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Curator: Shelley McSpedden, Acting Artistic Director and Senior Curator. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Shepparton Art Muesum Window, 26 March – 31 July 2022.
Nusra Latif Qureshi is a finalist in this years Len Fox Painting Prize 2022. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The Len Fox Painting Prize exhibition is held at Castlemaine Art Museum, 14 Lyttleton St, Castlemaine, Victoria. 12 March – 13 June, 2022.
‘Doing Feminism: Women’s Art and Feminist Criticism in Australia’ by Anne Marsh
Doing Feminism represents over 220 artists and groups including Catherine Bell, Kate Beynon, Vivienne Binns, Anne Ferran, Elizabeth Gower, Sara Hughes, Helen Johnson, Laresa Kosloff, Lindy Lee, Rosslynd Piggott, Nusra Latif Qureshi and Jane Trengove, with 370 colour illustrations punctuated by extracts from artists’ statements, curatorial writing and critique.
Tracking networks of art practice, exhibitions, protest and critical thought over several generations, Marsh demonstrates the innovation and power of women’s art and the ways in which it has influenced and changed the contemporary art landscape in Australia and internationally.
Nusra Latif Qureshi is included in SOUL fury at Bendigo Art Gallery. Bringing together the work of leading Australian and international contemporary artists working across sculpture, photography, painting, installation, video and textiles, the exhibition reflects on the essential nature of female agency in the current social and political climate.
Nusra Latif Qureshi’s solo exhibition, Promises of a Parallel Cosmos, will be on view at Warrnambool Art Gallery from Saturday 24 April to Sunday 24 June, 2021. The exhibition presents key artworks from the artist’s oeuvre spanning 2011-2019, alongside a new commission developed in response to WAG’s collection of Colonial holdings. Reflecting upon established narratives within art historical depictions of people and society, Qureshi openly critiques their accuracy and uncovers unknown histories. In Promises of a Parallel Cosmos Qureshi eloquently acknowledges the complexity of colonial stories, and encourages a new dialogue for understanding these in the present day.
Melbourne International Arts Festival launch Nusra Latif Qureshi’s Art Tram
Nusra Latif Qureshi’s Melbourne Art Tram recently launched as part of Melbourne International Arts Fair.
In each of her works, Qureshi enlists a collage-like language to bring together an unlikely constellation of techniques, images and complex appropriations from various art historical traditions. The intricate floral pattern that cover Qureshi’s tram references her artwork ‘Layers of red’, 2005, held in the National Gallery of Victoria’s collection. This intricate, two-panel work features a singular female figure, rendered in the style of a Mughal miniature painting, against a floral pattern adapted from an antique French textile.
Nusra Latif Qureshi at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
Qureshi’s first institutional solo show in Australia reflects on almost two decades of practice and brings together key works from the artist’s oeuvre, as well as a series of new commissions.
Nusra Latif Qureshi Strategies of Intent 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney 23 August – 29 September, 2019
